morning. we want to tell our viewers and listeners about was coming up tomorrow. we begin with a discussion on what's next for president obama's second term. we will continue that discussion with michael steele, the we will wrap up the program with a senior fellow at the council for foreign relations. they will be here to give as a relationship and how the rillettes -- relationship is playing. we want to thank everybody for watching this program. we will see you tomorrow at 7:00 a.m. eastern time. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012]

>> today on c-span, we will look at some in the victory and a concession speeches from senate races around election night. first, the race in virginia. been speeches on the base in missouri and the race in wisconsin. >> tim kaine defeated george allen for u.s. senate seat in virginia perce qe152% of the vote according to the associated -- virginia. he won an 52 some of the vote according to the associated press. [cheers and applause] >> wow. what a crowd. it is -- thank you all so much. thank you all so much. it is a great night to be a virginian. [cheers and applause]

in 2008, -- [chanting "tim kaine"] thank you. what a great crowd. you know, in 2008, virginia made some wonderful history by sending a fiscally responsible former governor to the united states senate in helping to put barack obama in the white house. [cheers and applause] well, the night is still young, but thanks to you, we are already halfway there to doing it again tonight.

[cheers and applause] actually, we are more than halfway there. nbc just called the presidential race. [cheers and applause] [frenzied cheers and applause]

four more years. thanks for sending that note up. so -- geez. that was great. [cheers and applause] so, we still, i guess, have a little bit to find out how the va number goes. nbc called the nation for president obama. thank you again. you guys look great. thank you so much. four more years! [chanting "four more years!"] this is big, big. you know, this road, this road, on this campaign, started 19 months ago, 581 days ago. when i kicked off the campaign from the steps of my back porch just a few miles from here. over 19 months, we have traveled more than 60,000 miles. we were joined by an unprecedented 50,000 grassroots supporters.

juppe ofan -- [cheers and applause] and even though we face more negative ads from secretly funded outside groups than any other campaign in the country except the president, we were able to overcome the influence of the negative ads and prove once again the strength of people power, grass-roots campaigning. [cheers and applause] so, here's what it means, folks. here is what it means. our victor to regard victory

tonight proves that it is the number of people who stand with you, -- our victory tonight proves that it is the number of people who stand with you, not the number of people who write a check. [cheers and applause] and tonight, and tonight, we also proved that virginians are ready to keep moving forward with leaders committing to finding common ground to help strengthen the middle class in the entire nation. let me just take a moment to recognize my opponent, george allen. i want to thank him for his years, more than 20-plus years, of elected service to virginia. [applause] i want to thank his wife susan, who is every bit as vigorous and effective a campaigner.

while george and i disagreed on many issues, the former governor -- we both share a deep love of this commonwealth and this country. now, the election is over. [cheers and applause] and, and for as hard as the 19- month campaign is, now is the hard work. it is time for all of us who love this country to come together and find common ground in our efforts to find solutions to our nation's common problems. [cheers and applause]

and i'm optimistic that we can because that is the va way. working together, we will make fiscally responsible choices to reduce our deficit while keeping the economy strong and not shredding our nation pose a safety net. in fact, we will do it in a way where we make the key investments we need to make to grow the economy in a fair way. working together, we will invest in our small businesses and infrastructure to strengthen the middle class and create jobs.

you know, there are entrepreneurs and small businesses that are the engine of growth in the nation and we have to do more to promote those true job-creators. working together. [cheers and applause] working together, we have got to win the global race. that means we have got to continue making those critical investments from early childhood to higher education to work force training to keep our nation positions ahead of all of our global competitors. but most of all, most of all, working together, we will remind virginians and all americans

that our institutions of government can actually function again, that our leaders can set aside partisan politics and rise to the challenges that affect our nation. we know that as a commonwealth and as a country, we have been through tough times. we know that many of our friends and neighbors and family members are still struggling. but you know what? unlike some of the doom and gloom uc perpetrated out there, i am not pessimistic because we have been through tough times before and we have come out stronger for it. [cheers and applause] we all know this. tough times don't last. but tough people last. [cheers and applause] so, we're going to get a real strength in this commonwealth

nation and continue to pave the way for a brighter future for all americans. i want to take a couple of minutes to offer some thanks. this is the hard part of the speech because as i look out and see so many of you, who i knew before i was even running for office, i could make this portion stretch on. i could actually start a good filibuster tradition that i might need to learn in this august body. let me give you some thanks. i want to start with the people closest to me, my own family. [cheers and applause] and let me just begin. i am one of those rare democrats who has won political hero and it is a republican. it is my father-in-law, mr. holden. [cheers and applause] my father-in-law played an amazingly important role in the life of this commonwealth and this country. he did it in a courageous way at a political cost to himself. at age 89, he is completely excited and satisfied about his political career. i am so glad -- [inaudible] [cheers and applause] everything that he did in politics was a team effort with his wife, my mother-in-law, give her a big round of applause. [cheers and applause] they have four wonderful children, one of, i am going to talk about in a second. they also have 10 grandkids.

you know what? here is something about really cool about them. of the 10 grandchildren, three are now graduated from college. one is just finishing up a stint in the peace corps. one is training to be a navy seal. one is a lieutenant in the marine corps. that is public service. that has been passed down to the grandchildren's generation. i demonstrated my extreme intelligence and good judgment when i asked their daughter to marry me. and ann has been the best friend i could have, in a wonderful wife, a wonderful mother of our

three children, and one of our children is on stage with us tonight -- [cheers and applause] we have our 28th anniversary on the 24th of november. i will also say that my wife is the best public servant in the kaine household. her work as a lawyer, a judge, reforming the foster care system, and now helping other states do the same is an everyday example for me. [cheers and applause] yeah! and some of you know, ann could not campaign for me because she was a court to judge. people started asking me, they say you are married but we never see your wife around. she loves the excuse of being a judge.

she gets out of coming to too many events. her ability to work can campaign with and for me in this race was a major key to my victory, a major key to my victory. i do not mean to be a modest but before this race, i was 7-7. when i got in with ann, i knew i was not going to lose. her sister, her brother woody are here, and his wife and their two youngsters, a around the corner neighbors from us. i want to give a round of applause around this family. [applause] >> we love you, tim! >> thank you.

this one, i will have a hard time getting through the sun because my parents are with me-- this one because my parents are with me. [applause] i grew up in may non-political household. we did not talk about a spot -- politics, it was baseball. i still think they have to hide from their friends in kansas city they have a son in

politics. but my parents, it's the hold and family has been a political inspiration, my family has been the character and social values that my mother and father have. my dad's incredible work ethic have shipped to i am and i would not be able to, i would not have been able to do anything without the support and nurturing that continues to this day and will continue for a long time. i also have -- i also have two kansas city brothers, my brother stephen my brother patrick and

their wives. four of their five kids, four nieces and nephews of mine. we are a very tight, a classic irish catholic family. i admirer growth -- both of my brothers and their wives and kids. they are zero ways here when i need them. pat and steve, i love you guys. thank you for being here. let's do this -- let's thanking congratulate senator jim webb for a great job. [applause] i -- when jim decided not to run, i was conflicted. i wish i had been on the trail campaigning for his reelection. i have said this over and over again, i am not running to be his replacement because i do not think a jim webb is easily replaced. i do place to try to be a worthy successor to jim webb. show your appreciation for this great american public servant. [applause] i want to thank my friend of 32 years, mark warner. he said it earlier, i have been married to ann 28 but i met him

32 years ago. we met when we were in moscow. we reconnected when he was chair of the governor campaign and i of the governor campaign and i was a foot soldier standing at the back of this room when he was on the stage in 1989 celebrating that fantastic victory. and our friendship and professional paths have crisscrossed back and forth. i was governor during a challenging time. i had to make a lot of tough decisions. i could not have made them had not been a lieutenant governor able to work so closely, a great virginia governor. even if i have to hear junior senator everyday, and i will have to hear it from the sky

every day, i am so excited to restart this partnership in a new way. [applause] you have some great, great great public officials who have influenced me standing in this room. i cannot name them all because i cannot see them all. former governor wilder, bobby scott, dwight jones, so many wonderful servants who have

taught me about richmond and taught me about politics as a way to provide answers and held serve. i want to thank you all. let me say congratulations to my congressman, bobby scott, who also got reelected. and to my mayor, dwight jones, who was reelected. [applause] jones, who was reelected. [applause] i look forward to doing great work together, as we have for many years, to continue to strengthen the city and our country. i also want to think, i have the best campaign team anybody, anybody -- [applause] i -- i have learned --[applause] i have learned you do not have to do it all yourself in political life. he said the key to being governor is to know how to point. he said you have to be able to point and tell people, go do that. that this is secret to success. obviously it does not work unless the people you are pointing to are the right people. bobby scott, dwight jones, so many wonderful servants who have taught me about richmondthis tef

people who have worked for me for my very first campaign to those should just come on board, is so professional and energetic. me for my very first campaign to those should just come on board, is so professional and energetic. [applause] finally, i just want to thank all of you as friends. i have virginia teachers here. right? including some who have taught our own kids. i have friends from labor, friends from business. i have friends that i met from southwest -- and the eastern shore, you inspire me. a campaign like this is incredibly tiring. but you know what, you drive energy from the good work that so many people do around this commonwealth. i could not be so from -- more fortunate in the friends and supporters i have had in 15 years. i'm going to add lib one more thank you, i want to think people who waited for hours and hours -- thank people who waited

for hours and hours. [applause] i am not sure, i am not sure people should have had to wait for hours and hours to vote. when i was a youngster, i took a year off from moscow and worked as a missionary in honduras. -- law school and worked as a missionary in honduras. nobody could vote for anything. nobody could vote for anything. i took it for granted, of course people vote. that is what we do. when you live somewhere else where people cannot vote and they cannot pick their leaders and a lot of people in the world still living countries and societies like that, you come to realize how important it is. the specter of virginians standing for hours and hours in

mind today, maybe they should not have had to, but they were willing to do it. [applause] participation was important. so i want to thank all of those, whoever they voted for, who went out and participated in record numbers. >> we love you, tim kaine! >> as hard as it is, as challenging it is, other real work starts tomorrow when mark warner gets off the campaign trail and bobby's got us to and mayor jones does and they get right back to the work. and i start prepping to join them when i take the oath to go into the u.s. senate. it is all about partnerships. virginian nose and shows how we can do it. -- knows and shows how we can do it.

[applause] thank you, all. i will conclude in saying, you look beautiful. nobody has handed me any notes about va. we have gotten two-thirds of the tract. i wanted to win and i wanted the president to win. i wanted the president to win va. i am going to go watch tv and hope that that happens. thank you for being here. [applause] [u2's "a beautiful day"] [applause] >> and now george allen's concession after losing to tim kaine. this about 10 minutes.

>> i want to begin, as i have always begun, speech god. i thank god. for many blessings. one of the blessings i came to realize that the greatest blessing in my entire life was my wife susan. susan worked hard if not harder speaking, a driving all over virginia. you are the best thing that ever happened to me. i thank god for you. we're also blessed with three wonderful children.

and so proud of them in their efforts they made to this campaign as well. all of us worked very hard to motivate and inspire people toward>> i want to begin, as i e always begun, thanking the prome american dream. for we have campaigned all over our commonwealth with beautiful people learning from them and being inspired by the people of virginia and their unspeakable belief of the promise of the american dream. tonight after a very hard-fought contest, we were reminded how closely divided we are here in virginia politically. i glad i got off the sidelines. i am very glad we did get off the sidelines and get into the fight and advocate the ideas and the solutions and the principles that we believe our porting for the future of our country. there are many people that we have heard from all over virginia. we have learned from them, heard their voices.

it is important for people to advocate for the values and families of small business people throughout the commonwealth of virginia who have not been listened to in washington. i want to say a word about tim kaine. we had the highest honor anybody could be accorded from the people of virginia to serve as governor. i also have the opportunity to serve virginia in the united states senate. now tim kaine will have the opportunity. i have called him and congratulated him. we tried to which the campaign on ideas and issues and reforms we feel would be best for virginia and america. we still remain friends

personally. i congratulated him and i pledge my cooperation and support has the and shakes the sullom task of representing the people of virginia during a very difficult times in our nation's history. we have not succeeded in winning this election. many folks helping out in this campaign. each of you should hold your heads high. we honestly and vigorously advocated our principles and offered a clear vision for the future. creating jobs and a competitive tax system, and powering education, reasonable at it -- policy. offered a pro freedom path to

fiscal responsibility for our nation. the best way to preserve the peace is the strength. we also call for unleashing america's plentiful american energy resources for more jobs, opportunity, greater national security and revenues to the government. that is everywhere from our fields to the coast. virginia is ready and able to power the economy. we spoke to renew our historic commitment to individual freedom, personal responsibility and opportunity for every american to succeed. what i remember hearing from some many virginians, a small- business man who said i want the government to get off my back and out of my pocket. i think it would be nice if we

had a government that was on this side of entrepreneurs and small-business owners. those ideas did not prevail in this senate contest here in virginia but if america is going to have a comeback that we all hope for, we must prevail as a nation with these ideas. not be tomorrow, it may not be next week, maybe not even next year. but these ideas, these principles must prevail. they are rooted in the historic fundamental principles of our commonwealth of virginia and america. these ideals and these principles are our hope for the future. i pledge my best efforts as a private citizen to promote these positive ideas as i keep fighting and advocating for all of these principles and ideals

that we all believe in. folks, it has been a long and difficult campaign. it has also been a joyful one. for susan and for me, i also think for our children, as tough as it is, thank you for standing strong. [applause] we have met so many generous people from all walks of life in every region of our commonwealth and at every turn, we have been lifted up by your words, your encouragement, your generosity. we have always felt your prayers. that meant the most. and from the bottom of our hearts, susan and i think the and all the people of virginia for these many kindnesses. i cannot leave here without thanking certain people. our campaign manager, thank you. a loyal and trusted leader.

betsy, thank you. frank and our entire staff to work hard and did not sleep, i thank each and every one of you and our volunteers. and susan's sidekick all over virginia. i want to thank all the energetic volunteers. there was such enthusiasm. thank each and everyone of you all for putting up signs, some getting their hands cut putting them up, thank you for everything you've done with their time, your talents, and your treasure to support our cause. but it is not our cause, it is america's cause. this campaign was not for us. it was for the people of virginia. the people of virginia remain in our hearts. the people of virginia until my dying breath will have my eternal gratitude for the honor and responsibility, not disserving but also being -- not just serving but also be the one who got into the arena.

you have to get into the fight. this is a pivotal time in our country's history. each and every one of you recognize the importance of this election in determining the projection of our country. we are not happy with the result but we're still alive. so long as they do not kill you, you can keep fighting. [applause] and folks, we need to continue to keep putting our beliefs into action and my hope is that each and every one of you all will keep fighting, keep working, keep the faith, and most importantly, always stand strong for freedom. thank you all. thank you. host: former governor george

allen in richmond virginia. >> now elizabeth warren's u.s. senatehe u. race. this is just over 10 minutes. [cheers and applause] all right. all right. all right. all right. no, no. thank you. thank you. this -- [cheers and applause] this victory belongs to you. [cheers and applause] you did this. for every family that has been

squeezed and hammered, we're going to fight for a level playing field and we are going to put people back to work. that is what we're going to do. yes. [cheers and applause] to all the small business owners who are tired of a system rigged against them, we are going to hold the big guys accountable. [cheers and applause] yeah. to all the seniors who deserve to retire with the security they earned, we're going to make sure your medicare and social security benefits are protected and that millionaires and billionaires pay their fair share. that's right. [cheers and applause] and to all the young people who did everything right -- [cheers and applause]

who did everything right and are drowning in debt, we are going to invest in you. [cheers and applause] to all of those service members and your families who have fought so hard for us, we're going to fight for you. that's right. that's right. i love you. [cheers and applause] and all the women across massachusetts -- [cheers and applause] to all the women across massachusetts who are working your tails off, you had better believe we will fight for equal pay for equal work.

[cheers and applause] to all of you, this is your night. this is your victory. yes. this -- [chanting] this was a campaign that broke records, raising more money from small donors than any senate

campaign in the history of this country. [cheers and applause] and, knocking on more doors than any senate race in massachusetts. an amazing campaign. let me be clear. i didn't build that. you built that. [cheers and applause] and you did what everyone thought was impossible. you taught us a scrappy, first- time candidate can get in the ring and win. you took on the powerful wall street banks and special interests and you let them know you want a senator who will be

out there fighting for the middle-class all of the time. [cheers and applause] and despite the odds, you elected the first woman senator -- [cheers and applause] thank you. [chanting "warren"] yeah, i love you, too. i don't have to tell you this

was a tough campaign. senator brown and i had our differences, but he and i just spoke and he sent his congratulations. i hope you'll join me in thanking senator brown for his service to the commonwealth. [applause] we wish scott and gail and their daughters nothing but the best. nothing but the best. i also want to speak to senator brown's supporters. the message you sent was clear. we need leaders in washington who are willing to break the partisan gridlock and work regardless of party. i know i did not earn your vote, but i promise i will work to

earn your support. [cheers and applause] there are many people to thank tonight. i am going to start with my husband bruce. i also want to thank my kids, my beautiful grandkids, my brothers, my in-laws, my cousins, my nieces and nephews here in massachusetts and all across the country. senator kerrey, governor patrick, mayor, thank you for your support, for your encouragement, and most of all for your leadership. you were real fighters in my corner and i appreciate that. but it's what you do every day

for the people of our state that is truly remarkable. thank you all. thank you. [applause] and to our congressional delegation, to all of our mayors and legislators, council members and sheriffs, to the nurses, to the fire fighters, to the teachers, to the carpenters, to laborers, two men and women of the building trades, and to all of our brothers and sisters in the labor movement -- [cheers and applause]

i love you, too. to the lgbt community. yes. [cheers and applause] yes. to the women's groups. [cheers and applause] to the environmental groups. [cheers and applause] to the ministers, i'm so grateful. to the credit unions. yes. to the more than 700 small businesses supporting us, to the student organizers, to the democratic town committees, all of you, all of you, all of you have had my back, and i promise you, i will have your back. i promise.

i want to thank the single best grass-roots army that any state has ever seen. [cheers and applause] for every volunteer who knocked on doors, who stood in the rain and held signs, who talked to their neighbors, and to my incredible staff that worked more hours than i thought was humanly possible -- [cheers and applause] thank you, thank you, thank you, all of you.

and to everyone who shared your hopes and dreams with me and put your faith in my ability to fight for you, i want you to know this. i will never forget. i will always carry your stories with me in your heart. i won't just be your senator. i will be your champion. [cheers and applause] i promise. ok.

so, tonight is not over because we still have a lot of celebrating to do, yes? [cheers and applause] but i want to close by noting that it was exactly 50 years ago tonight that senator ted kennedy was first elected to the united states senate. [cheers and applause] we miss his passion, his commitment, his energy, and his fight for working families. that night, 50 years ago, he said that he would dedicate all his strength and will to serve you in the united states senate.

for 47 years, he lived up to that promise. tonight, i pledge to do the same. thank you. >> scott brown concedes to elizabeth warren. this is about 15 minutes. >> what a wonderful kraut, thank you very much. thank you. thank you so much. thank you. thank you very much. thank you very much.

it is wonderful to be out here we ran a fantastic campaign. you and i have waged a great campaign. i cannot have asked for better allies and friends to see his third this battle. we stood strong in the fight. we stand strong now even and disappointment. thank you so much. thank you. you have no business and politics unless you respect the judgment of the people. the run for office you have to be able to take it. i expect the decision of the voters. i've already offered by sincerest congratulations to

sister elizabeth warren. >> no, no. she won it fair and square, folks. and she has received a high honor. may she bring that senate office rate credit, just as i set out to do nearly three years ago. i said in the very beginning back in january that win or lose, we would run a race that we would all be proud of. and i am very proud of each and every one of you. [applause] as you know, it has been two statewide campaigns in three years. both times, we dared to battle and we were not afraid of

defeat. we started in late 2009 with a truck, a stack of yard signs and a roomful of france. we took that to the united states senate and i am very thankful for that. it has absolutely been a wonderful ride and i want to take for the honor of being your united states senator. [applause] know what the most difficult part of this is? i now have to break the news to my truck that i will be taking it home. [laughter] you guys are all fired up

tonight. this is great. [applause] thank you, alright. what matters even more is what we achieved. -- i kept my promise to you. i kept my promise to you to be that independent voice from massachusetts and i have never ever, ever regretted any decision that i made for you. you all sent to washington to be my own man and i will be returning my own man and for that i am very proud. thank you for that opportunity. right now, i want to reach out to the young people that may be watching or listening and those who have maybe fountain that --

found an especially difficult time in their life, and difficult station in their life, and those face without or uncertainty. we live in the greatest country in the world and i am so thankful for the opportunity. when it seems that nothing is possible and the odds are stacked against you, let me tell you, i can speak from experience, anything is possible. there are no obstacles you cannot overcome. defeat is only temporary. [applause]

you guys are great. when i took up this cause, i knew the work was bigger and harder than anything i could do on my own. anything in the world. i asked for a lot of help from each and everyone of you and i could not be more prouder -- so thank you very much. i came this far on the strength of thousands. we came this far on the strength of thousands. people all around the state who

volunteered and gave it their all, our finance committee, all the volunteers. each and everyone of you in this room. i cannot have gone this far without each and everyone of you in this room. thank you very much for the gratitude that i have for each and everyone of you. it is really remarkable. i want to thank the campaign team. they did a great job with insurmountable odds. they stuck with me. i cannot even talk.

thank you, thank you very much. hey, i love you guys too, thank you. the campaign team stuck with me at every turn. they put up with me and i'm very grateful for their friendship and the endless hours they committed to this effort. i want to especially thank my senate staff. [applause] there is nothing, listen, i am going to sleep very well tonight, folks. i will go on a nice run tomorrow morning. you guys can chased me around if you can keep up with me. i will never ever regret helping people that could not help themselves. [applause] those people who are hurting through the interference of government regulation and falling through the seams and those wonderful stories that we heard in the letters we have on our walls of problems we solved for people. i will never, ever forget this opportunity to help those

people. i will still keep working for you, do not worry. most importantly, i want to thank my wife, gail. and just for the record, i am out to the not going to say anything about my daughters tonight. as you know, gail stood with me for the first time in her life with me in this came in the campaign and worked as hard as anyone to carry out -- carry us across the finish line. collette, support, advice get me going at times when i

thought the odds were insurmountable. gail and i have never felt so much pride but it worked with our daughters, so, thank you ladies. as you know, many of my family and friends are here. i want to thank my mom, judy. mom, raise your hand. my sister, le ann, robin, my brother bruce as well. and all of my extended family and friends. one thing that it's a little different though is my dad is not here. he has been on very bad health and has been struggling. i am not sure what it's going to happen but he is right here with me and i want to say that i

love him and thank him for his support. i'm kind of psyched that you guys hung around. crowd: go, scott, go! many of you know in your lives, there is a point in your life when you take on a challenge and you do something that no one ever thought you could achieve and you do the very best you possibly could.

and you leave everything on the table, whether you are in a sporting event, do leave everything on the court, whether you are the battle and leave everything in the battlefield, i have left everything in this battle. i want to thank you for the opportunity. whatever the future holds, i am fortunate man to be where i have been. i am very fortunate -- [applause] host: we will go to richmond, virginia.

i am fortunate to have the opportunity unfortunate to return to replace a lot more than anything in the world. thank you for that opportunity. as you know, we set up three years ago to accomplish something worthy called a more worthy, because it was so hard and we did it together. you and i are witnesses to the truth and ideals, effort, and strength that hard can accomplish when we put our minds to let me say this in closing -- , want to say this in closing -- -- i want to say this in closing. [applause] i want to say this in closing --

we have a tremendous amount of challenges and i am looking forward to going back to the united states senate, as dysfunctional as it is -- and we are going to try to do the people's business until january and then i will turn over the reins and let somebody else take a stab at that this functionality i have given, we have given, three years of independent representation in the senate and that is three years more than some states get. we led a cause that deserve and received all we could give and for me, it was an honor to carry your flag even if only for a little while and i thank you from the people of massachusetts for that honor and privilege, thank you, thank you very much. thank you. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] >> next the victory speech of claire mccaskill.

this is about 10 minutes. [applause] >> thank you. 18 months ago, there was a lot of the political chattering glasses -- class is that were spouting a lot of information about the senate race in missouri. they all said it's over. it's done. it's too red. there is no way that clare mccaskill can survive. you know what happens? you proved them wrong. [applause]

with a stubborn determination, tenacity, and a refusal to give up, we showed the country what missouri is made of. [applause] i have to -- i have so many blessings from god i cannot be able to name them all. i will start with the people on this stage. these are my children, my stepchildren, my siblings, their spouses, my husband -- they are my rock, my foundation, they are there for me and he puts up with a lot. [laughter] [applause] there is one person missing on

this stage tonight and i have to tell you -- mom, this one's for you. [applause] and the reason i know this one is for my mom is because i actually believe what all the votes are counted, something extraordinary well have happened. you need to understand that this race was called before any of the boats from st. louis city, but was county -- [applause] -- st. louis county -- [applause] guess what, mom? i think we finally won her rural missouri. [applause] i also have to thank this

amazing stat i work with on this campaign. [applause] we have been added for two years. -- at it for two years. we have been going full bore for two years and this is such a team. every single part of this campaign, intellect, a great strategy, work ethic that i am in all of, a sense of togetherness. were no egos and our team was focused on what we had to get done. i cannot name them all. they are truly special but i have to tell you that i have to give a shout out to corey and adrian by campaign managers. they did a great job. [applause] let's get to the meat and the bone. that would be you. that would be all of you.

what you did, thousands of volunteers across the state, you decided that you wanted nothing more complicated than your government to reflect your values. [applause] i stand in awe your passion and commitment and your patriotism and your determination that you were going to have a voice in the united states senate that made you proud. [applause] i also stand here in acknowledgement of the fact that i did not get every vote today. there was hundreds of thousands of boats that were cast for congressman akin and he graciously called me and congratulated me. i recognized his years of public

service and his patriotism. [applause] all the people -- the votes i did not get today -- this is my message to them -- i go to washington first as a missourian. [applause] i will continue to be a senator but works across the aisle in a bipartisan way to find compromises to solve problems for every missouri family, not just the families of those that voted for me. [applause] along the way, i had the incredible honor of meeting people that were perfect strangers to me that greeted me like long-lost friends. there is nothing that makes me

prouder than complete strangers walking up to me, grabbed my hand, and giving me a word of encouragement. whether it was the elderly woman at the airport that grabbed my hand and said, miss clare, i will fight hard for you or about maintenance man at the office building a few weeks ago who shouted at me as a walk through the lobby -- clear, we've got your back. [applause] it is those people -- it is those assaults of the earth, wonderful people, that live in this state i love. it is those people that i will go to washington and fight for with everything i've got [applause] this was an extraordinary campaign for some many reasons.

the results are astounding. i want all of you to own it. you deserve it, you did it, god bless you, and thank you. six more years! [applause] 

>> it is appropriate to thank god, be the honor and glory regardless of how he decides to organize history. >> amen. [applause] >> the asleep, there are lot of thank yous and i want to thank my wife who is right here. [applause] a wonderful family -- they are faithful and true and my dear parents, paul and nancy,.

that is a 91-year-old world war two thvet. [applause] i also need to thank an absolutely fantastic campaign team. it is the best campaign team i have ever had the pleasure to work with and an absolutely countless and fantastic volunteers and friends that have made commitments all over the state including standing around in cold rain. [applause] it is also appropriate to thank numerous prominent leaders arrest both of their businesses and their reputations by standing with us and we remember them and thank him very much. in addition, the tens of thousands who contributed to this race and the millions who

have been praying for us. i want to thank you all so much for your support. [applause] i am standing here tonight by the grace of god but i wanted to introduce to you our supporters. i want to tell you who they are. i want to tell you what they believe. first, our supporters not just in missouri but they are from all over america. >> i want to tell you what they believe. our supporters such as in missouri but they are all over from america. they may appear to you as fairly average rate of the american spirit they are not part of the elite group or particularly self important. they are people who work hard, love their families and sacrifice for them. they are people with hopes and dreams. the kind people double hold the door for you at a restaurant are gasoline station. when no one is looking, they do the right thing. when a neighbor is hurting, they are there.

but they never beat a drum for themselves. they are slow to anger, quick to say they are sorry a quick to forget. they know we all make mistakes. these people struggle with the hard knocks of life. a struggle with cancer, the loss of a job, loss of a house, loss of loved ones. they pressed on. america. they do not think of themselves as particularly special. when they are called there will risk their lives for their country or community. they think the government to respect our hard earned tax dollars that it collects. in short, they love god, they love their families, and they love our country. [applause]

of also want to tell you not only who they are but what they believe. we believe that life, liberty, and the pursuit of happen this come from self, not from government. we also believe our creator made us want people. -- we also believe our creator made us one people. country -- american. s. [applause] we also believe the source of america's great strength is our faith in a loving god to allows courageous people that freedom to pursue the unique james each of them have. -- unique dreams each of them have. we believe the constitution is suggestions. we believe ordinary people go to

america. we believe you don't that. -- we believe you build that. if you tell americans it will not worker cannot be done, you better get out of the way because we specialize in those kinds of things in america. in the face of tsunamis or earthquakes, we sent medicine and fade. -- and fate. -- and faith. failed governments resort to lies. we believe that our government owes us the truth. he also will leave it is inexcusable to betray the americans to terrorists in the knesset and rescue.

-- when they could have been rescued. [applause] washington, d.c.'s first question to that what is -- should not be what is politically expedient of what is right. -- but what is right. [applause] in washington does not need more money, it did more kurds. -- it needs more courage. [applause] they face tough challenges the -- at home and abroad but it is these types in the past that -- at these times in the past americans have looked to got in from courage to do the right thing. and there was a time when lincoln's advisers warned it was political suicide yet he

issued the emancipation proclamation. reagan's advisers urge caution. he had the courage to demand mr. gorbachev, tear down this wall. as long as we have the courage to stand for what is right and good, even when it is difficult to do, this republic will continue to bring hope to the world and to lead the that shining city on the hill. -- and truly be that shining city on the hill. good night. >> 2013 should be the year we begin to solve our debt through

tax entitlement reform. i am proposing it will be the solution of the fiscal cliff together that ensures that 2013 is finally the year that our government come to grips with the major problems facing us. >> i am open to compromise. i am open to new ideas. i am committed to solving our fiscal challenge. but i refuse to accept any approach that is not balanced. i am not going to ask students and seniors and middle-class families to pay down the entire deficit while people like me making over $250,000 are not asked to pay a dime more in taxes than of the newly elected congress starts work in january but the current congress still has work to do through the end of the year in what is referred to as a lame duck session. work is expected on the impending fiscal cliff including the expiration of the bush-year tax cut, the federal deficit, raising the debt ceiling and by

how much, and planned cuts to domestic and military spending also known as sequestration. follow the floor debates starting tuesday with live house coverage on c-span and the senate on c-span 2. >> next,tammy baldwin's vick terry speech. she won with 51% of the vote according to the associated press. this is about 20 minutes. [tammy! >> thank you.

>> thank you. wow. thank you. thank you. thank you, everybody. tonight we have won a huge victory for wisconsin's middle class. [applause] it is that battle for wisconsin's middle-class that has been what this has been about since this journey began 14 months ago. everywhere i have gone in our beautiful, people have told me they want a senator who will listen to the middle class when they need help.

a. senator who will stand on this side of the middle-class. a senator who will wake up every morning and fight for the middle-class. [applause] they have told me that they once an economy in which everyone -- they want an economy in which everyone plays by the same rules and everyone does their fair share. [applause] they have told me it they want a level playing field, one where china cannot cheat our workers and millionaires cannot judge -- fudge taxes and wall street cannot touch our economy with risky gambling. [applause]

they have told me they want to pay down our debt without shortchanging our future. [applause] they have told me they want to be able to rely on the guarantee of medicare and social security, not just today, but for future generations. [applause] most of all, they have told me the special interests have too much power in washington and it is time for the people's voice to be heard. [applause] well, the people's voice was heard tonight, wisconsin. [applause]

come january, your voice will be heard into the united states senate. [applause] crowd: tammy, tammy! >>i am honored and humbled and graceful. -- and great fall and i am ready to get to work. ready to stand with president barack obama. [applause]

and a ready to fight for wisconsin's middle class. [applause] i am well aware that i will have the honor to be wisconsin's first woman senator. [applause] [applause] and i am well aware that i will be the first openly gay member. [applause]

crowd: tammy, tammy, tammy! but, i didn't run to make history. i ran to make a difference. [applause] in deference in the lives of families struggling to find work and pay the bills-- a difference in the lives a family struggling to find work and pay the bills, a difference in the lives of students struggling to pay student debt. [applause] and seniors word about their retirement securities.

-- or about their retirement security. [applause] a difference in the lives of veterans who fought for us indeed someone fighting for them and their families. them and their families. [applause] a difference in the lives of entrepreneurs try to build a business and working people try to build some economic security. [applause] but in choosing me to tackle those challenges, the people of wisconsin have made history. [applause] and i cannot tell you how grateful i am for the trust the day you placed in me and all i can do it -- that you placed in me and all i can do is work hard to keep that trust.i know that many of the people

listening to the speech tonight may not have voted for me but i want you to know that i can stand up for you and ask you to work with me to move hours before. -- move our state forward. [applause] here is the promise i want to make you -- i will be a senator for all of wisconsin. [applause] our state has had some incredible leaders from both political parties and all across the ideologue's will spectrum. -- ideological spectrum. when herb first event for the

u.s. one is herb poll. [applause] when he first ran for the u.s. senate, has slogan was nobody's senator but yours. over time, that slogan began a title, when he has earned every day he has served the state of wisconsin. [applause] over the course of this service, that slogan became the title. when he has earned every day as he has served the state of wisconsin. i am so grateful to have had his support to out his campaign and humble to carry his deep commitment to public service. i also want to thank tommy thompson for his life and the public service. [applause]

before i do, i will like you to indulge me in and a cosmic on a very personal level. i just got off the phone with him. was there record low -- he was very cordial and congratulated me and wished me well and all of us well. [applause] i want to tell you a quick story about tommy thompson on a very personal level. i still remember the first time i ever met tommy. i was 30 years old and a freshman member of the wisconsin assembly. he was greeting new members of the legislature at the governor's mansion. we did not talk politics. i explained to the governor that i was joe baldwin's daughter and an ever met him before my father passed away. tommy's face lit up.

he had known my father in college and would delight in sharing some small remembrancer every time i saw him. and that meant the world to me. tommy and i did not always agree. [laughter] in fact, in this campaign, we did not agree on much but there is no doubt he shares my love for all of wisconsin. [applause] tonight i want to reach out to his supporters and ask them to join me in standing up for our belief that we are all in this together. [applause] make no mistake, i am a proud--

wisconsin progressive. [applause] which means i believe in holding the powerful accountable, i believe within the fair play and i believe that when people are struggling, you did not talk down to them. you helped lift them up. [applause] and i believe in wisconsin's workers and a work ethic and will fight for every day. [applause] i also believe that we can only move forward if we move forward together. this has been an incredible

journey, one that has shumlin -- one that has shown me the best our state has to offer. i have watched wisconsin workers put that made in america label on boots for our soldiers, on ships made and engines made. i have met with potato farmers in clover and it the best cream puffs in the world at the state fair -- and ate the best cream fair. [applause] i am grateful to so many people tonight. i want to thank the people of the second congressional district for giving me the honor of serving you for the last 14 years. [applause]

i want to congratulate mark who did a terrific drop -- job . mark pocane, who did a terrific job. [applause] it has been a privilege to serve the the house of representatives. i had a hard working, a dedicated team of congressional staff into incredible work in my name but on your behalf. [applause] led of my dear friend and chief and staff, i want to recognize these amazing people. [applause] i'm grateful for all the elected officials and public

servants used it with me throughout this campaign to rid in particular, i want to single out gwen moore. [applause] who famuosly reminds me when she sees me, i was for you before you were for you. [applause] i also want to thank russ for campaigning with me and on my behalf for the last 14 months. [applause] i have never been a part of a campaign organization as amazing as this one. and i want to thank my friend and campaign manager, karen joe hansen. [applause]

for help me build this team of determined, inspirational, an incredible staff, supporters, volunteers, it has been incredible. i am grateful for the campaign. [applause] you have all heard a lot about my grandparents who raised me and especially my grandmother. she was born in 1906 before women have the right to vote. and got to live to see her granddaughter elected to the house of representatives. [applause] i know she would be proud

tonight. i am happy and so fortunate to have within my mother, pam. [applause] [applause] now, a man of all the things i can tell you about her among all the things i can tell you about her, she had the prophetic wisdom to name me tammy. [laughter] how could she know there would be headlines reading tammy vs tommy? [laughter] i am also joined by my aunt and uncle. sarah, melinda, and guy. [applause]

and i want to thank my family for their love, support, and encouragement. to that it is a long journey comes to an end. -- tonight, a longer journey comes to an end. we know our work is just beginning. whether you voted for me are not, whether tonight you're celebrating victory or dealing with a defeat, i hope that when we wake up tomorrow morning, we are ready to work. ready to fight. ready to fight for our middle- class, ready to keep our promise to our seniors, ready to have a level playing field for our workers, already to make sure everyone has a fair shot. ready to make our country

stronger, more prosperous, and more equal. [applause] ready to do what wisconsin people have done for generations, stand together and move forward. thank you. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] >> now republican tommy thompson's concession speech. this is about 15 minutes. crowd: tommy! >> i want to thank governor walker.

and his lovely wife who was just standing right there. [applause] thank you. with a gracious couple. -- what a gracious capital. -- what a gracious couple. yesterday the governor and i flew all over the state of wisconsin, meeting with businesses and talking to people. i just want to say thank you. [applause] i also want to thank jb van hollen, an outstanding attorney-general.

a class act and i could not be happier to have him as my friend. he and another griffin and mike he and james clauser agreed to be the co-chairman of this campaign -- and another friend of mine agreed to be the co- chairman of the campaign. i let them down but i thank you jb and james so very much. [applause] crowd: we love you,tiommy! [applause] i also want to thank my family. i have never campaigned harder. [applause]

my three children and their spouses. chris and kelly and tom and brian and jason and little state with his wife. -- and littlejase. [applause] my very good friend don and roxanne who gave me a chance to help build a business with him.

in lacrosse. very happy my sister is here from california ander fiancee. -- and her fiancee. [applause] my brother arthur and chad, thank you. [applause] wasgovernor's brother who in an ad with me, i thank him and his family. jeff knight and sharon and todd

- i just love all of it. i love all -- all of you. i love you all. courtney the state chairman of the party andi also wanted thank my campaign. team. but the wonderful group of people. -- what a wonderful group of people. john matthews, darren scmidts, my field staff and my campaign chief, lisa booth, ryam bopothfield, mary stitz and everybody else the worked so hard and did so much.

[applause] iran, ladies and gentleman -- i ran, ladies and gentleman, because i love this country and that love this state. -- and i love this state. the belief -- i believe so much the fact that we're so fortunate to be americans and to have the opportunity to have the liberty and freedom, the opportunity to do what ever we want to do. that is pretty impressive. the have an opportunity to choose our leaders. we did not always agree. but i congratulate the president tonight although i did not support him. i fought hard to defeat him.

he is our president and hopefully he will lead our country in a better direction. i thank our new senator. i called her and congratulate-- congratulated her. it was not my first choice. [laughter] was not my first race but she is our center and i wish her well. i congratulate her. and coaches a will to do a great job for the state of wisconsin. i have run because they for wisconsin is something special. heaven the opportunities -- having the opportunity to work with governor walker and the republican that won tonight, to build wisconsin which i have had the opportunity to do from the state legislature to

governor, for 14 years, it is an awesome thing to be-- state. i wanted to serve wisconsin, served its people again and country. i'm very worried that my three children and grandchildren -- whom i love dearly -- because they want to make sure that our children and grandchildren are going to be able to inherit a country that a stronger and safer, with more opportunities

than what we have. i thought i was slipping away and i wanted so much to help lead back america. to build america for future generations. to be the country of growth and opportunity. that is why i ran. i did not need the job and i guess i am not going to get it. [laughter] and i do not need anything more razak because -- on my resume because i already accomplished could. [laughter] [applause]

i ran for the right reasons because i care so much, just like you, can you imagine the number of people out here attended night? -- being out here at midnight? you should be home and going to sleep and then going to work. you're here because you believe, just like i do, so much in our country and what it has to offer. that is why i fought so large -- so much. will knight was still making calls at 5:00 today. john martin, my friend from chicago who came here to volunteer, dr. anderson came over from sweden to spend the week campaigning.

he wasn't able to convince to many people with a swedish accent. [laughter] [applause] brian, you were great. thank you very much. john thomas, the duffys - -- i am not going to go away. [applause] i am not going to run again but i certainly am going to be supporting people to do the right things for the right

reasons, to build wisconsin and build america. i just want to finish up, ladies and gentlemen, by telling you you are wonderful people. my father always told me, you are lucky to have five good friends you can really count on. and will go to bat for you. i look at this crowd and my father was wrong. i have thousands of friends. [applause] and supporters. crowd: tommy, tommy! thank you, thank you. just know that we fought the

good fight. we came up short but that does not mean we should keep fighting for our principles, our ideals, and our beliefs. we have -- [applause] we have a state to build behind scott walker and jb and senator johnson and our congressman who won reelection to light. -- tonight. we have a country to be able to chart a new direction to rid the have to continue that fight -- new direction. because this country has been so good to all of us. if you are really honest with yourself, none of us could have

been wary are tonight and none -- could have been where we are tonight and non of us could accomplish what we have so far if you were born in any other country. america is something very, very special. we have to do everything we can to do what is necessary to get this economy going, getting the jobs created, and making america as strong as good as it possibly can be. that is why, ladies and gentlemen, tonight, it is tough, it is hard, but it is what a democracy is all about. we get in a democracy to choose our leaders. most leaders now have been chosen and now it is our responsibility to get behind them and point them in the right direction.

but also, do not forget our conservative principles as republicans. we have a great party and with governor walker, jb, and paul ryan, what a class act. [applause] we have the nucleus. to go on and really make a difference. and that is what all of us hope to do and that is what we have to aspire to do. so ladies and gentlemen, it is my last time but i want to give

you the irish prayer. [applause] made the road always rise to meet you and me the wind be always at your backs, may the sun shower upon your forehead and the rains fall soft upon your fields. until we meet again, may god hold you in the palm of his hand. god loves you, god loves wisconsin and god was the united states of america. america. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] >> next, representative joe donnelly is a victory speech after defeating richard murdock for the u.s. senate seat in indiana. he won with almost 50% of the vote. this is about 5 minutes.

[cheers and applause] >> thank you very much. thank you so much for all your help. i look out at all of you and you all made phone calls and all knocked on doors and you were all out in cold weather going from house to house and that is why i am going to be the next united states senator from the state of indiana. [applause] it is not about me -- my dear friend 7 spriggs senator evan by has come back time and time again to travel with me to go all over the state, to spend time calling people. dan parker, the entire party team, what an incredible job, all of the county chairs and

organizations -- most of all, to hoosier voters -- you gave us a chance and what we said was we think the most important thing is hoosier common-sense going to washington. [applause] i want to thank mr. murdoch and his family, mr. horning and his family for a spirited campaign. thank you very much for uploading for them. [applause] i want to thank the most patients bows and the state of indiana, my wife. [applause] and the rest of my family was it -- who was with me here tonight, i have not seen them very much. they told me i look older and more worn out.

this is about our future, the chance for good jobs, to see our economy grow, to work together in washington. we can solve these problems. can solve the budget deficit problem. can solve the problem of making sure our men and women come home from afghanistan. we have the best soldiers, airmen, marines, navy, coast guard, merchant marines in the world and we owe a debt of gratitude to them that we can never repay. [applause] we have a tradition in indiana in the united states senate -- that tradition is people like richard lugar and evan bayh who work together, and whose only focus is on what is right for our country and so i say to all of my fellow hoosier is out there -- this is not about

politics, this is not about one party or the other -- our tradition of men and women, a tremendous service ever work, people like richard lugar who gave his heart and soul to this country and the navy, and the mayor of indianapolis and that's the model we have. senator bayh who served as governor and senator and for everyone out there -- i am not going there as one party senator or another, i am going there as your senator to work for your family. i am the hired help and i cannot wait to get to work. thank you so very, very much. i sure appreciate it. [applause] >> now republican challenger richard murdock's concession speech. this is about 5 minutes. [applause]

>> >> thank you all for a wonderful round of applause there. i truly appreciate it. obviously when you work hard in campaign, you have speeches in the back of your mind as to what you're going to say and how you're going to do it. again, you're never quite prepared to come forward with a speech that is required tonight. in coming to this conclusion tonight, for this campaign that thanks to our campaign manager and chris connor and ashley who have worked so hard for us. to abbie, j.t., cody, and dustin. to the folks who joined us most recently liek haley, cam savage,

jason miller and john mclaughlin. cheryl johnson, idane, laura miller, cindy, and susie bar nhardt. those ladies have been all over the state and logged thousands and thousands of miles. began 634 days ago, i have to tell you it has been an experience i will never ever forget. as i told a reporter earlier today -- he asked what would be the overwhelming memory of this experience regardless of what would happen win or lose, and i told him that without question the thing that has given me the most satisfaction and, indeed, the most inspiration is having spoken to so many hoosiers over the last 6 months that i've talked to for only a moment and i hear a different accent in their voice. they're not the people who were

born, as most of us were, in the united states of america. they were born in other places around the world. and they came to this country and they express their love of country in a way that exceeds what most of us do who are natural born americans. and what i kept hearing in their voices over the last few weeks and months has been their concern that this country might in fact be slipping back into the kind of government and governing that they worked so hard to leave. and as i stand here tonight and as i contemplate all that's happening, especially with the senate races across united states, i fear a bit and share even more their concern. i've said many times over the last few months this race wasn't so much about richard mourdock versus joe donnelly or even republican versus democrat but about the direction of our nation as a whole. tonight, my own disappointment aside, my concern for this

nation grows greater. that's not meant as a slap against mr. donnelly -- i wish him well. certainly, i congratulate him. but i worry when hoosiers who look at the state level -- to see a state they are so proud of because it's lived within its means and it's made hard decisions. and yet, they've opted now to be supportive of that group in washington that wants to constantly kick the can down the road, add to our debt, weaken us in vital policies that would yet make the world a more dangerous place, and somehow, i think, go against those basic strong traditions of hoosiers, which is to say we are compassionate people. we look out for one another. we care about the next generation as much as we do our own. this race comes to a conclusion tonight.

i leave this podium again wishing congressman donnelly well in his new task, wishing the very best for all hoosiers, and with great pride in a team that worked so hard for us over these past 634 days. i've tried not to use the personal pronoun "i" standing here. but forgive me, i will for a moment. because as i will look back on this night -- over the weeks, the months, the years ahead -- i will look back knowing that i was attacked for standing for my principles. [applause]

i will look back knowing i was attacked for standing on my principles, for coming into this public process with the idea that you ought to put forward something to offer the public so that they can make a clear choice. to all of you who are republicans of longstanding, i hope you appreciate that i always tried to stand for conservative values. for those of you who came to this process and god bless you -- especially from the tea party who have never involved before, i hope you know that i stood and stand for the rule of law and the constitution of the united states. and last but not least -- and

[applause] last but not least -- though i was attacked for it as well -- make no mistake, i stand that all life is precious in the eyes of god. [cheers and applause] thank you all very much and god bless you. let us continue to move this party ford as the governor has so often said. we are the party of purpose that will stand for the rule of law, the constitution, and for life itself. thank you all very much. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] >> 2013 should be the year we begin to solve our debt through tax reform and the entitlement reform. i am proposing that we tackled

the fiscal cliff in a manner to make sure 2013 is the year that our government comes to grips with the major problems that are facing us. >> i am open to compromise and to new ideas. but i refuse to except any approach that is not balanced. i am not going to ask students and seniors and middle-class families to pay down the deficit while people like me making over $250,000 are not asked to pay a dime more in taxes. >> the current congress still has work to do through the end of the year in the lame duck session. follow all of the debate starting tuesday at 2:00 p.m.

eastern with live house coverage on c-span and the senate on c- span2. >> now, democratic incumbent senator bob casey's victory speech after winning with 53% of the vote. this is 10 minutes. > ♪ >> thank you very much. thank you very much. wow. thank you so much. i am so grateful that everyone is here tonight. i am going to give a pretty short speech because we have a lot of people to thank, but i know people have been waiting. first and foremost, let me thank the people of pennsylvania. [applause]

the people of pennsylvania have given me the rare privilege to serve them in three offices, to serve them as auditor general, state treasurer, a member of the united states senate, and now to be reelected is a great honor to me and i am grateful for their support. [applause] just about 40 minutes ago, i received a call from my opponent in the race. a very gracious phone call from him bending we wished each other well and . we wished each other well. i am grateful for his phone call. [applause] i cannot begin -- it would take a lot longer than i have tonight -- to express my gratitude to my

wife and children. thank you for their good work. [applause] [laughter] we have been counting all lot tonight. and a little tired from counting. i cannot tell you how much they have sacrificed on my behalf. a lot of people come up to you and say you have a difficult job and they give you all kinds of accolades. families live through campaigns and are part of the public service of a public official. i am so grateful for their support over and over again, year after year. morena, for example, she has

only known campaigns and me running for office and serving in office. she was born during my first campaign in 1996. i am so grateful for her help. [laughter] [applause] as you can see behind me, i have not named everybody on the stage of. i will not do that. i want to thank my family in so many other ways. all my brothers and sisters who are here. their spouses. especially my mother tonight who is with us, i want to thank her. [applause] my mother has been to a number of campaigns.

one day at my house, we were in my kitchen talking about fund- raising. she reached into her bag very quietly and took out a checkbook and a pen and wrote me a check. that is when you know your mother is backing you up them that i am so grateful. i am almost done with my list. i did want to thank our supporters. so many people here in this room tonight and your families for what you have done for me. work that you did. all of the events that we had been betting hundreds of events to compete in a tough race. i am grateful for that support and all of the volunteer hours that people put in. telling their friends, and neighbors, and families to get

out to vote. i know there are various members and leaders of organized labor here tonight. i want to thank rick for his great leadership and the men and women of labor. there is one person i do want to cite for accommodation and gratitude. that is someone who you saw on television talking about some of the work i have done in the senate. she is here with her husband scott. that is cheryl harris. i want to thank her for her support. [applause] i want to thank her for the awesometion and the sacrifice that she and her family have paid for the country. thank you for that great

sacrifice. [applause] i want to end with a couple of thoughts about our common wealth and our country and then we know that right now we are still in a recovery. jobs are being created at a faster rate but not fast enough. we are in a region right now where the unemployment rate is far too high, the highest in our common wealth. every time we talk about progress, momentum, and recognizing that, a lot of that assessment should be informed by the reality that people's lives are today. so many people in our state and in this region is still living lives of struggle and sacrifice them that we have to make sure that as we begin a new congress, as we begin to deal with the issues of the economy, job creation, getting our fiscal

house in order, we have to prioritize and remember those families. the job of putting this country back to work is not yet done. as a member of the united states senate, i still know that is going to be my number one obligation. we have a lot of work to do when we go back. [applause] and we also know that middle- class families are still struggling. too many costs are high for them. we have to make sure that when we go back to washington, we sit down, both parties, to work together to make sure we ensure that middle income families can have some measure, some peace of mind, as they move forward because this has been a very difficult economy. then we can have a lot of

debates about what happens to folks at the higher end. first and foremost, our priority must be middle income families. and making sure that we are focused on bringing democrats and republicans together to avoid this fiscal cliff that is coming. i know we can. i know we must. i know both parties understand we have to work together to get that done. [applause] finally, just on the issue of bipartisanship, this has been a tough couple of years for our country. we just lived through a very tough election year. after this is over, after all of the votes are counted in these races, we have to come together as one country. this country has been through a

lot of tough times recently but we have been through tough years before. at those moments, we come together not just both sides together by bring our whole country together to create jobs and move the economy forward, to focus on our fiscal challenges, to make sure our national security is a strong, and to move forward as one family into the future spending we have a lot of work to do but i have total confidence in our ability to do that in both parties. it begins tonight in the aftermath of a tough election. i am grateful for the vote of confidence and am so grateful to be with you tonight. god bless you and thank you. [cheers and applause] ♪ [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012]

>> now republican linda mcmahon's concession speech after losing the race in connecticut to tim murphy. this is about five minutes. [applause] >> thank you all so very, very much. well, that was quite a wonderful, wonderful welcome. just as the same way that you have welcomed me all over the state, just the same cheers that you've given me as we've gone into a room together or attacked a problem together or planned a strategy together, you have been there and i love each

and every one of you. and i'll repeat what governor rell had told me when i first started running. she said, "you are going to love the people of connecticut when you can get out and meet them." and i do. and from the bottom of my heart, i thank all of you. [cheers and applause] so there is no way that i can individually start to thank everyone. the folks on this stage -- my wonderful family that are all here with me tonight, friends, and relatives who have come in from out of town, great supporters all through the campaign.

and i would really rather have won. i would really rather have won. but we gave it an incredibly, an incredibly good fight. and so i want to thank -- so i [applause] truly, as i was saying, i want to thank all of these folks on this stage and especially, you know, my family who is here tonight. i'm so proud of them. and i want to thank also the men and women from the wonderful company that i helped grow -- world wrestling entertainment -- because without them i could not be standing here on this stage tonight. so i want to thank them. [applause] and of course, i'd like to thank my husband, vince, who stood beside me and behind me all the way through this. [cheers and applause] wantvery shy; he doesn't to come out.

[laughter] but this was -- this campaign i look back on with no regrets. i don't think we left a stone unturned. i don't think we would have done anything differently in the campaign. i really had an incredibly amazing campaign staff, from strategists to our campaign manager to all those people who worked in the field, our communications people, and all of the thousands of volunteers who worked so hard in our field offices all over the state. i thank you for that. [cheers and applause] we made over a million phone calls -- probably i think it's almost 2 million phone calls -- knocked on over a million doors. and that was with volunteers,

it was with interns, it was with paid staff. but it was an incredibly well- run, hard fought race. i have called congressman murphy -- senator-elect murphy, and i have congratulated him on his victory tonight. i hope and i asked him to please continue to work hard for the people in our state so that we can get those 170,000 people who woke up this morning without a job -- get them to work, so that we can put policies in place in washington that will reduce our taxes and grow our economy. and i sincerely hope that he will do that and work with the rest of the connecticut delegation. we can only hope. we can only support him and the other members of our delegation who are serving us in washington. and they need to hear from us. they need to know what they need to do. so it is our responsibility now -- and listen to me, please. everyone listen to me for a minute.

it is our responsibility to charge them, to challenge them, to make sure that they hear what we say, and to make sure that they are doing what we need because they work for us. [applause] and if we let them forget that, shame on us because we need to voice our concerns and we need to say what we need. and i'm looking forward to being helpful in that regard. so i just -- so let me just once again thank all of you so much for being here tonight, for being on the campaign trail, and for believing in me and having confidence in me. and we came, you know -- we had a good race and i'm really proud of the effort that we had.

so again thank you all very, very much and i'll see you soon. [cheers and applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] >> now, a democrat r's democrat richard carmona's concession speech after losing the race. this is about 10 minutes. [applause] >> thank you. thank you. boy. before i even start, i have got some prepared remarks but i just wanted to say something. the last year or so, i have been

surrounded and taken under the wing of some of the most passionate, professional, hard- working young people who just felt they wanted to do something to change. i didn't realize big gift i was given back then. even before i give you some formal remarks, i want to do a big shout out for my team who are the most extraordinary people in the world. [cheers and applause] now, many of you know me and you know i do not like to read speeches. these remarks are important enough that i did not want to miss anything so we wrote them down. in my wildest dreams growing up,

i never saw myself here. nobody else would have either been that i was a high school dropout. my family was poor. '60s,g up in the '50s and being latino was not easy. even back then, there should not have been much reason to believe in me but there were some people who saw potential and pushed me to achieve. they all said to me when you get to the top floor you make sure you send down the elevator for someone else. the older i get, the more i think about that. we ran a tough race. i knew everyone involved in this campaign could walk away with their heads held high. [applause]

we ran a race i will always be proud of with out the trash talk that defines our modern politics then th. [applause] that is a lot to be proud of here tonight. all of you here in this room invested a lot of yourselves in this campaign. i am humbled by how many of you gave up your weekends for this campaign the specially since the 100-degree days only broke. he wanted to take our state in a take our state ined to a more moderate direction. [cheers and applause] you did it because the partisanship we see in washington is crippling this country. you did a for the same reason i did. we all believe we can contribute

to something bigger than ourselves. [applause] the biggest thank you goes to my family. diane who i have known since i was a child and all our kids. right here. [applause] caroline, robert, jason, and julienne, simply the best kids a father could ask for. thank you to all of you here. i will be glad to finally get off the road and spend more time here. [applause] now that this race is over, you'll see me back here teaching at the university, working with the sheriff's department, and

continuing to work with businesses. i have been blessed in my life by all of the amazing people i have got to work with and serve with and most of all by the country i was born in. only in this country it is possible to go from a high school dropout to the surgeon general in one generation. [cheers and applause] that is because we have an infrastructure of opportunity that allows a high school dropout to join the army, serve his country, and then go to college and medical school. [applause] we did not win tonight but when you look at the result, it is pretty clear arizona is moving toward moderation. [cheers and applause]

when this campaign started, some people thought i was delusional. "he is a nice guy and has a good resume, but it is arizona." i think we showed everyone here tonight that arizona is changing. arizona is not shifting from one party to another. it is shifting toward independence come up modernization, and compromise. it is shifting back to what we used to have with great leaders. it is also shifting back to what all this year saw from gabrielle giffords who showed us -- [applause] a leader who showed us it is possible to work with the other side.

[applause] and where i really see our state changing is with all the young people who got involved with this campaign because they wanted to make their state a better place. i hope our work has encouraged some of those kids to now go out and do something for themselves them and get an education and achieve the american dream. [applause] if at the end of the day this race inspires a few kids to say if he did it, i can do it, that is all i can ask for. [applause] i have never aspired to be a politician but i have also believed in self-service. i hope that is what some of these young people took from

this campaign, that the greatest calling in life is to serve others. all of the wonderful people i have met, it is hard to say goodbye. so let me say thank you, thank you to my family, thank you to everyone here, thank you to arizona. my team cannot come up here. i want every one of you up -- my team, come up here. i want every one of you up here. everybody. [applause] come on. come on. everybody, up. come on. let's go. alexis. [applause] get alexis. let's go.

come on. alexis. come here. so, in closing, i want you to meet some of the finest people in the world who care deeply about their state and their country and worked tirelessly for almost a year also i would have this opportunity today to serve. we have made a big impression on the estate. a lot of it was done because of great leadership. this young lady here is one of the finest people i have ever met. [cheers and applause]

this is my campaign manager. this is my team. i want them to know and i want you to tell them that all of their efforts were not in vain because we have accomplished something very significant. [cheers and applause] so, thank you, ariz.. thank you, my friends and family. thank you for the opportunities you afforded meet. it is a privilege to be part of this great community. thank you for the amazing country that has given me so much. thank you. [cheers and applause] ♪ [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] >> coming up today on c-span, we will look at congress and the impact of this year's election.

first, what congress can do in the lame duck session about the upcoming pisco cliff. followed by an analysis of upcoming elections in the house and senate. then a look at education priorities. later, we'll talk about the impact of the african american vote on president obama's re- election. president obama will participate in the presidential wreath laying ceremony on sunday following by a a remembrance ceremony. our live coverage begins at 11:00 a.m. eastern here on c- span. >> 2013 at should be the year we begin to solve our debt from tax reform and the entitlement reform. i am proposing that we avert the fiscal cliff together in a manner that in shares 2013 is

finally the year that our government comes to grips with the major problems that are facing us. >> i am open to compromise and new ideas. i am committed to solving our ethical challenges. i refuse to except any approach that is not balanced them that i am not going to ask students and seniors and middle-class families to pay down the deficit while people like me making over $250,000 on not asked to pay more in taxes. >> the current congress still has work to do through the end of the year in the lame duck session. work is expected on the cliff andpisco cliffiscal planned cuts to domestic and military spending also known as sequestration. follow the debates with live

house coverage on c-span and the senate on c-span2. >> now, a look at issues facing the lame-duck congress including the impending tax increases and budget cuts. hosted by cq role call, this is about an hour. >> i think i am going to begin. we have a lot to get through. i am going to offer one statistic to serve as a bridge between the demographics of the

first panel and our next panel. >> nobody else did in the first panel, and i was kind of amazed. the lame duck will be the last time this year and probably for the foreseeable future when the house democratic caucus will be made up of majority white men. the election results this week assured next year that white men will be a minority of the house democrats. sort of an amazing change that reflects what we talked about this morning, so -- and sort of a bridge to the next panel, which my colleague will moderate. we have two veterans of this conference with us, and it ought to be good. >> hello. we are all white males, how did you like that? so what do we know? i am senior editor at "roll call" and a 16-year veteran of "the mclaughlin group" and a 16-year veteran of fox news, and any of you who ever watches

either of those will know that not only am i glad to be here, i am glad to be anywhere i can finish a sentence without getting interrupted. [laughter] i like to say i was there at the beginning of the end of civil discourse, but we will have civil discourse today for sure. on the far right here, not politically, is norm ornstein, a senior fellow at the american enterprise institute, a longtime contributing editor at "roll call." next to him, senior scholar at the brookings institution. these two wrote one book recently -- a few years ago called "the broken branch: how congress is failing america and have to get it back on track." nobody followed their advice, so they just came out with a new book called "it is even worse than it looks: how the american constitutional system collided with the new politics

of extremism." that book is a best-seller, and i encourage you to go out and get it. i would like to see it made into a movie. a horror movie, it would be. the 112th congress, i think we will agree, is one of the worst in terms of production in american history -- recent american history, anyway. governing by continuing resolution, endless filibusters, bills passing the house never seeing the light of day in the senate. we almost defaulted on the national debt and so on. the 112th congress has one last chance when it returns for the lame duck session, and, of course, the major rite of businesses, the fiscal cliff,

which amounts to the endgame of this congress having filled about a dozen gigantic barrels with fiscal high explosives and rolling them down hills toward december 31 where they may of crash and bring the economy down with it to a tune of what the cbo estimates to be 3.5% of gdp next year where our growth rate is 2%, so we will be back in a recession. the question of are we going off the fiscal cliff or are we not -- why don't you start, norm. >> since you did mention foxes, i wanted to start by congratulating karl rove and dick morris for their spot-on analysis -- since you did mention fox news. i did want to talk about david axelrod had the line of the year who said, "i had a foot in

my mouth many times in my life, but it has always been my own." i think that takes care of dick morris. let me start by noting the lame duck session is also going to attempt to do other things. there are other things to clean up. one is the farm bill. it is something i mentioned because it reflects on the dynamic over the fiscal cliff that here we have an instance in which the senate united in a broad, bipartisan way with, i believe, 74 votes for a farm bill at the time of the worst drought since the great depression with some sense of urgency, particularly because livestock farmers were just in desperate, desperate straits, and the house did nothing. even leading up to an election, did nothing, and it is still

hanging fire. they promised to pass the bill. they did nothing because basically, they have faced a conservative revolt because the bill did not cut food stamps enough. it is a template out there. we saw it before when the senate passed the transportation bill, desperately needed, and the house sat on it for months before they came in with a diluted version. and one of the things that will be most interesting watch, as the fiscal cliff approaches, what could well be another instance of commendable broad bipartisanship coming together on a template from the fix that that coalition that hits the wall and house again. i mention one other thing, which is the cyber security bill, which is the result of some sense of urgency, and you have an interesting set of tensions inside the senate.

you have a bill that was put together by joe lieberman, soon departing, and susan collins, done in a thoroughly bipartisan way, and joe lieberman's closest friends in the senate said no, this is not good enough. there was enormous tension among them. so there is going to be an interesting question of whether lieberman, who is going to push very hard -- this is his last legacy -- is going to be able to prevail upon his colleagues to get that bill or some version of it through, and of course if it does not, and we will see basically the actions taken by executive fiat, which is even more anathema to senators mccain, graham, and others. that is a sideshow, a three- ring circus, and have a couple of side rings that remain as

well. one thing i would say about the fiscal cliff, at one level you could say there's no great sense of urgency. as many people have said, it is more a fiscal slump than cliff. it is not like we're going to plunge into the hole if we don't fix this immediately. there are many things that an administration can do to ameliorate the impact of many of the tax cuts and of the budget cuts. there are some significant amounts of discussion about how you deal with budgets. you can move accounts that aren't among the things related to public safety. it is not quite the same as it was when we had the shutdown of the government in 1995, but there is a lot of discretion there, and among other things,

you can have an administration that decides to not to effectively change withholding rates to keep the immediate impact of the tax cuts from taking hold. you can do that for only certain time. that is true. on the other hand, things like the doc fix, also as they expire, are not easily ameliorated, and you could end up with serious issues on the medicare program on january 1 without getting some kind of change. all of that plays into what could well be a game of brinksmanship, a game of chicken, between the white house, the president, and especially republicans in the house. we have seen the scenarios out there. the tax cuts expire, the president immediately proposes one of the largest tax cuts in history for all except 1% of

the public, and puts the onus back on an obstructionist party that has gotten away with that when the president wanted to do things and blocking them, but where inaction hurts the other side more, and that includes defense cuts that are in the works. if you have a president that can use executive discretion -- remember bill clinton, the national parks close, and you got a huge public outcry. there are lots of things you can shut down that will have people saying, what the hell's going on here? this is not what we voted for. let me raise the others in the area that i think is now becoming an increasingly possible scenario, increasingly in part because simpson and bowles announced a new ramped- up plan to try to push a resolution that they had been

working on it with a fix that the coalition in the senate. we have had some conflicting messages in the last few days. john boehner started with the tough-minded might message election eve -- "we have as big a mandate as he does with the returning republican majority in the house -- but then moved to softer rhetoric -- "we want to work with the president. we understand there have to be some revenues." if you parcel out a statement, it was additional revenues by cutting taxes further, because if you cut the tax rates, the revenues will come in. that is not quite the same thing. it also reminds me of what we saw with rhetoric in december and january of 2008, 2009. "we want to work with the president on a stimulus package," and then not a single

republican vote. as we learned in our research as it was reported in a fine book on the stimulus, when david obey called in his counterpart jerry lewis to discuss it, he said, "jerry, we're going to do a stimulus. the country is back on its back. i want you to go back your leaders and find out what they would like included, but tell me the things you would not accept." lewis laughed, and pointed up and said, "i'm sorry, david, i have orders we're not going to cooperate." if what we get is a similar phenomenon, a public presentation of the willingness to work with drawing lines in the dust, we get a different phenomenon. mitch mcconnell took a much harder line, and it really was he has a mandate for his failed policies. that is not what this election was about.

anything that happens now has to meet the approval of the house republicans or it is not going anywhere. that i think is in many ways also a false bluster, because what we see going on in the senate is roiling change that mcconnell does not necessarily control, which is 48 senators from across the board working with the fix-the-debt coalition, and the business community to come up with a simpson-bowles template. there will not be a plan. >> what you see is the scenario? >> especially on the fiscal cliff? >> you will not see much difference between this on this. mort, i think it is impossible to write serious law during a lame duck that would constitute an agreement with any substance other than, and something set up behind them once again, to

go into the fact if the next congress does not actually produce them. but the idea that they could do something that delivers on the promise of tax reform, which, when you really come down to it, was asserted in the republican no new taxes pledge. they have signed on to this with their blood oaths. grover norquist and the club for growth and others are out there in primaries reinforcing the importance of keeping to it, and there is just a lot of investment in this. and yet everyone outside of them in the policy community and the real world understands, as long as that pledge is held to,

nothing of consequence can be done. so the idea -- and understandably -- that bowles- simpson did, they were a little vague about it, other than the revenues they would have to produce, but republicans kept saying here in the campaign that that means we are going to lower tax rates. frankly, the possibility of lowering tax rates, paying for all that, and producing revenues for deficit reduction are close to zero. maybe we ought to just say zero. it is impossible. it will not work. and now in the aftermath of the election, it is perfectly clear that the president would never let anything of that sort go

through. so there we are. what happens? can they come up with something that defers the expiration of the tax cuts and the sequestration until they have time to act? they could do it simply, but that would entail the president going back on his promise of not extending the tax rates for the upper 1%. my guess is he will agree to a short-term extension absent that element. and actually extend other things that he likes that were part of the stimulus. the question is, will the house republicans agree to that? it is not clear to me that they

will or that boehner can do anything else. the question is, will he be courageous enough to allow a rule to go forward, and with that rule garner a majority for most, if not all, democrats, plus enough republicans to pass it, and then pass the measure? i do not know. he probably would lose his speakership as a consequence, but it may happen. >> that may excite four possibilities and get you to put you on the spot to put a percentage on the likelihood of this. number one, the grand bargain done by the end of this year? that is to say, at least in terms of a framework, but a deal that solves that both the debt problem, tax reform, and

the tax element of it to escape the fiscal cliff on a long-term basis? >> if we are on to start with that one, there is maybe a 30% chance of a framework deal. the framework they are working out that in the senate -- because there's no plan. we did not have a full-blown legislative package for any of those, and it is one where basically you have a promise of a certain amount of revenues with an order of the ways and means and finance committees that comes up with those revenues by a date certain, six months down the road, that there would be a certain amount taken from the growth of medicare and medicaid, and committees, given an order to do that, that you defer while the domestic and defense discretionary cuts, but have something specific that moves away from across-the-board sequesters. i can see that getting to the

senate. there is a real chance, maybe even 50%, chance, that the senate could pass that with a super majority, but it comes down to a 10% chance, 20% chance that it passes the house. >> the most they could get is a framework agreement, but the probability of that passing in the house is low. the other problem with that is it looks like it is simply kicking the can down the road, because there is no guarantee that the committees will actually report something out that accomplishes that, that in turn can garner majorities in the house and senate and be signed by the president. so i have a feeling we are going to have to play some

hardball before we have our "kumbaya" moment. there is room to do that, because if our instinct is right about the senate republicans and find 10 or 12 -- who will not include mitch mcconnell, up for reelection in two years -- and they actually do it, the president has enormous possibilities for putting pressure on with a good chunk of the business community with him and actually producing some response. >> so all of these possibilities are kind of mushing together in these images. the grand bargain by the end of this is zero? >> zero. >> the second possibility is we do not go off the fiscal cliff, we kick the can down the road with something fairly credible

in structure, norm thinks that is 30%, and you think it is what? >> a little lower. >> ok, third possibility is we kick the can down the road, we cannot do it, we extend the tax cuts for some time and just revisit everything in 2013. what do you think the percentage chances of that are? >> i think they are fairly low. they are higher because you have a reelected president. if obama were a lame duck president, the incentive for republicans to negotiate with him would be close to zero. i see this happening only if they are inching toward a deal. they're not quite there yet. then you kick down the can for a couple months to reach that

point. if they are not near a deal, there's no incentive on the part of the president to put this off for two months. >> so you think it is a possibility that we just kick the can into 2013. >> i think there is a better possibility of it because the president would sign it, of kicking the can absent the extension of the bush tax cuts for the 1%. >> the last one is what is the percentage likelihood of falling off the fiscal cliff? in other words, we did not get a deal, the deadlines come, the tax rates go up, the sequester goes into effect. granted that they can fiddle with the implementation of it, but nonetheless, the stock market goes to hell at the end of the year because political

system is again revealed to be broken, and all the other consequences prevail. what is the percentage change of that? >> let me say, mort, as a predicate, i suspect for all of this we may need the stock market to go to hell before we get a deal. keep in mind the tarp example. remember that at the worst possible moment, when the world was at the edge of a deep depression, the house republicans voted against the plan that came from their own president that had been endorsed by their presidential candidate and all their leaders until the dow dropped 700-plus points, which back then was a big deal. then came back and passed it in time. that may have to happen. i am more sanguine that we will reach the second point, with a template, because the senate feels urgency to do so. i think there is a significant chance that we actually go off the cliff.

there has been a reaction from the public, because of medicare as much as anything else, and the president would prefer not to sign something, and i do not think congressional republicans will go along with something that just leaves the tax cut aside. then you would get a public backlash and you would get a fairly quick movement. there's a real chance of that happening. >> under that scenario, we would get to the end of the year with no agreement, and then we would have a january where there was chaos or anticipated chaos, and the markets roiled. don't they come back and do it then? >> they have to come back on january 6 to count the electoral votes and do some housekeeping. then they are scheduled to be away until the inauguration, basically. keep in mind that the chaos can be managed by the president to put maximum pressure on republicans and ease some of the pressure in other ways.

you can ease up what happens with tax cuts, especially for working people, and you can manage some of the budget cuts under the sequester so that it brings discomfort in other ways, which you cannot manage very well with the doc fix. >> that is one of the possibilities? >> that might be up there was some kind of a template, in effect, kicking the can down the road. >> my view this is most likely, the second being the framework. >> going off the fiscal cliff in one manner or another, even if it is a slope rather than the catastrophic cliff, you think is the likeliest possibility? >> i do, but i also think it

will lead to substantial agreement probably in the first six months of 2013 that will move this issue off the table. >> i thought the president's speech in chicago, what left out was his offer to governor romney that he would like to meet with him to talk about ways of moving forward. that probably was not met with great eagerness by governor romney, who was in mourning, but at the same time, it puts romney in a difficult position and could potentially give some leverage to obama. remember some other republican narrative is going to be sandy is what made a difference. why? because you saw this enormous public embrace of the idea of bipartisanship at a time of great stress in the country.

the bromance between obama and chris christie was kind of like a cross between "i spy" and laurel and hardy. you have got that, and you had run the talking about how i will reach out, i will find common ground. obama calls in and says we need a common ground. i need you to be my emissary to congressional republicans and get them to go along with the simpson-bowles grand bargain. at the same time, while congressional republicans are not wanting to support governor romney, and remember when paul ryan after the 2010 elections, he was an icon for them, came back to the freshmen and said we cannot do the budget cuts we promised you right now. they threw him out of the room. they are not to be eager to do that. you can gain significant leverage by moving in that direction, and it would not surprise me that obama has a couple of cards up his sleeve to turn the bully pulpit into a more potent weapon in the next month. >> there are other ways of

doing that. one is i think he will have simpson and bowles by his side on this. he has already committed to using that as the framework. there is evidence around that the white house has been working on revisions to that, giving it some specifics that would make it palatable to him and to most democrats as well, and there is also an effort to begin to pull out some major figures in the business community to be at his side. he would not go off the cliff without first having demonstrated what an agreement would look like, and having the support, including potentially some senate republicans with him. it would in effect be a decision of the house republicans to go off. that is how he would frame it. >> so when do you expect obama

to emerge with a plan, and when with this grand event, sinmpson-bowles and jeff immelt, coming together? >> i remember several months where i would talk to the gang of six and a said they have a plan, which they are not quite there, and it took them many money months to do it. i hear from the gang of 40 and the gang of eight is we're getting close, we're almost there, very tricky to find out how you can do this. presumably the way you do it is pass a reconciliation bill, another reconciliation bill that orders the committees to come up plans by a date certain, but

it is not clear you can do another reconciliation bill right now. you do not have a budget plan that enables you to do it. obama will not come out with his own plan. that style does not change. he wants the senate and simpson and bowles and the business leaders to have a plan which he will embrace, and that is when you have this moment at the white house where he has got all these people, tom coburn on one side, simpson and jimmy dimond and jeff immelt on the other side, saying we need to move forward, some of these things i find unpalatable, but

now speaker boehner, what are you going to do? when will that plan be there? it ought to be there now, presumably. their whole idea is we emerge with this right after the election, but my guess is within a week we will see obama trying to lay the groundwork for making this happen. >> you mentioned the gang of 40 and the gang of eight. these are key -- >> the gang of eight is an expanded version of the gang of six. i like the gang of three. >> who? >> tom coburn, saxby chambliss, mike crapo, we have kent conrad, who is still there, and dick durbin, and mark warner, and they have added another

democrat who i will think of before we're done here. michael bennett. they have been working with a total of 40 senators, 20 on each side, who have been participating on and off to pull all this together. the framework is the same framework that we have had from all of these groups. it is a total of $4 trillion in debt reduction over 10 years, somewhere between $1 trillion and $1.3 trillion the coming of the revenue side, and then a balance of defense, discretionary, domestic, and entitlements, probably including, as we saw the negotiations with boehner and obama, social security in the mix, although you have a lot of democrats who are pushing against that, and there was a big ad in "the washington post" today laying out their positions. it is much more the procedural hangups that keep them from

reaching that. you will see a white house emissaries, probably jack lew, trying to pull it altogether. there is your doubt in my mind that they reach an agreement that obama immediately embraces it. >> does that agreement raise revenue by raising rates or does it raise revenue through tax reform? >> the latter. >> do you think tax reform is impossible? >> no, i think tax reform, apart from reduction, is possible. in fact, i think some of that is already included in the obama budget, which is that you reduce the total amount of tax deductions that you can claim. you could do it overall. you could do at by category of deductions. i think there is some real possibility for gaining revenues. i just think the likelihood of

cutting rates is slim to none. i do not see it in the cards. it is not realistic. in fact, the wild card in this, which could garner some republican support in the gang of 40, is a form of consumption tax dedicated to health care. you could do this in a progressive consumption tax of some form, but with dedicated revenues to pay for that, and medicare, and potentially medicaid, which obviates the need, getting more out of general tax revenues. >> could you see a consumption tax getting to the house of representatives? >> if it is dedicated and done anyway, i think, compared to the alternatives, it is possible. >> there are a lot of possibilities in tax reform. one of the challenges is if you

only look at reform of income and corporate taxes, you got a real problem. you and i remember the negotiations in 1986 over tax reform. it was the last time we had a major policy initiative passed a second term as president, but it was really tough to do. that was making it revenue neutral, because you cut rates, cut people's taxes, that is fine, and then when you try to pay for it, everybody screams. try and do that and raise revenues and it is simply not doable, but if you start to get

bolder and you think of a dedicated tax or consumption tax that replaces the income tax or raise revenues, or one of my favorites is a carbon tax to replace all or part of the payroll taxes, things you want to reduce like carbon, do not tax things you want to enhance, like work. but that is a logic that seems still very elusive. >> it seems to me that -- boehner said the other day "we are not going to camp david, we're not going to andrews air force base. how do we get from here to a consumption tax, which has not even been discussed? it was never discussed. the whole fiscal cliff idea was ignored even by the moderators of the debates for reasons that

i cannot fathom. since there has been no buildup to a consumption tax idea, how does it pass? would the gang of 40 produce it? >> no, it would be part of the framework agreement over the cover of tax reform, but then you would, in the course of implementing that next year, you would begin laying the groundwork for developing support. it is very hard, but all of this heart, and i am not saying it will be part of it. i am saying serious discussion is being given to it. >> we will open the discussion to the audience. if i understand correctly, what you two guys think is likely to happen, it is that we get no agreement before the end of the year, we fall off the fiscal cliff -- it is not as steep as we anticipated it will be -- but the markets react very negatively, and then in negotiation begins seriously with the new congress in

january, and then something happens and they deal gets reached, early next year. is that fair? >> yes, but with substantial preparation for that. it is not blindly going off the cliff at both ends of pennsylvania avenue. it is really orchestrating it. >> john boehner to stay speaker of the house under the scenario? >> that is a real open question, because it requires boehner falling on a grenade.

the problem is that eric cantor and kevin mccarthy are going to be reaching under his belly to pull the pin and not pulling him off to avoid the explosion. it is a moment of reckoning for boehner, which is a moment he had back a little more than a year ago. with the public pressure there, it is entirely possible. mort, what do you think? >> i think they will not go over the fiscal cliff, that they will reach some sort of a framework agreements, that they will kick it into 2013, with instructions, and i think that john boehner is willing to fall on the grenade. and if barack obama plays this right -- and do not forget, anyone who has read the bob woodward book blames barack obama's lack of leadership as much as republican intransigence. i will not ask the percentages, but i know what you guys think of the percentages. barack obama is responsible, he has got to stop and be a leader

as well. i think boehner will do what boehner needs to do. i hope that obama will do what he needs to do, but i think the chances are good and we will not suffer catastrophe, because americans somehow avoid catastrophe. >> mort, this very sensible, and in general there is a good chance of that happening. but i have to take exception to your referenced above to bob woodward. we would help him because of his arguments that barack obama failed to work his will on congress like lyndon johnson did. that is the most naive thing i have ever heard in my life. the only reason this kind of presidential leadership and skilled and care is necessary now is it because it follows an election that barack obama won. republicans' effort to get back in power of a scorched-earth policy has failed. >> read the book and the movie is coming. questions from the audience,

please. >> i am wondering what impact you think of a link-up of moderate senators, such as brown, lugar, are going to have on the negotiation? >> we have been waiting for some time, including for example senators snowe and lugar announced they were retiring, for change, and have not been there. they continued along the path in following the leadership of senator mcconnell. whether it changes now is an open question. i suspect it will a little bit, and it may well for senator

brown, depending on when we get an announcement or if there is an announcement that john kerry going to be named secretary of state, in which case there will be a special election down the road for that senate seat, and you will see scott brown become the great conciliator as he prepares for the election. for others, they will continue to take their clues from what the leaders say or what the members do. there the question is whether mcconnell basically becomes at

least a more passive actor and lets lamar alexander and bob corker and tom coburn take the lead and do something that he will oppose in the end, because he is mindful of 2014, as tom said. or whether you do not get that kind of impact and mcconnell works overtime to yank his members back into a tougher negotiating position. if that is the case, we go right over the cliff. >> i think mitch mcconnell will not be able to sustain unified republican support behind filibusters. >> over the long, it may work in the lame-duck session, but it is no longer possible. but norm's scenario of the quiet person in the back speaking to kentucky and allowing others to come forward makes sense. >> let me raise another issue which is important to keep in mind.

the democrats will be pushing hard and pushing harry reid hard, and he is already on record to the filibuster change. when does that happen and how does that happen? if in fact you get democrats saying to republicans, we have had enough of this crap, we are going to reform the filibuster, and we will do it with a simple majority, and whether you like it or not, that creates a different dynamic in the senate, and it could have reverberations in a lot of places. does that hardened the lines? >> yes. it hardens the lines. you'll see efforts to make it a

partisan, diluted approach to the filibuster coming from places like carl levin, or you could have it quiet and dormant until after these negotiations reach an end. if you get that happening in december, they will come back in january and do it and then have those lines hardened again. you got to keep in mind that the way in which the filibuster is handled now could create some real dynamic in terms of the willingness of the two parties to work together. >> questions? >> you mentioned the farm bill. could you talk specifically about the likelihood of a farm bill passing during the lame duck? >> the house leadership has been very reluctant to bring up a bill, because this was another one of those instances where it would only pass with as many democrats as republicans. there has just been this really hard line, a line that cuts

across many areas. the farm bill is in part about which commodities gain and which commodities lose, and so you pit one group against that. given that they are on record that there will emerge during this lame duck and the problems up there with a lot of devastated farmers, they have got to bring up something pretty close to the senate bill and see what happens to it. although i think that may happen later rather than sooner because there's nowhere near any kind of agreement of how you do this. >> you mentioned mr. mcconnell taking a back seat and the gang of eight taking more of a role. are there any members that you think are now back-benchers and could rise to that role over the next six weeks? >> it would almost certainly involve senators who are involved in the budget negotiations. therefore, that have experience

in the gangs of 6 and 8 and 40, but i do not see any individual in particular one could imagine doing it at this time. if you look at the sort of leadership ranks of cornyn, those are likely candidates. it would really have to come elsewhere. >> lamar alexander is one who has not been a formal member of the gang of 8, but endorsed the plan. he was the seventh to endorse it when it first came out. and i think he in particular is wanting the final stages of his career to be a grand bargainer or a problem solver. i mentioned bob corker coming back. keep an eye on john kerry, who may be at the end of this senate career. we do not know yet if kerry may be an influential player who carry some weight with his own partisans.

and also the two udalls, who i think are well respected among democrats, and mark has been very strong on the fiscal side. >> hasn't tom coburn emerged as some of the voice of sanity? he has enormous credibility among conservatives, and yet he is a negotiator here. he was the leader of the gang of 6. this is about people beyond the gang of 6 or the gang of 8. coburn is key, and i suspect one of the first people that

comes to the white house when obama starts this process is coburn, which is someone who he has had a pretty close personal friendship, even if they have been at odds politically. it is one of the things obama wants to have coburn up there next to him. >> i do not hear mention of things up of eliminating the mortgage interest deduction, and i wonder if that could be part

of the final decision. i do not think the mortgage interest deduction will be eliminated. i think the most likely probability of a deal will be either in aggregate limitations on deductions for a revision, a further revision of individual deductions like the mortgage interest that lowers the amount that would be allowed. i think that is how they would go about it. >> so the tax code does not get simpler? >> no, i think the probability of the tax code -- this is very low. >> ok. questions? yes. >> i am hearing more that the tax code really is not completely broken, that it works fairly well. it does need to be modified, but what is really broken are the scoring rules in congress. i would be interested in your thoughts if you really think the tax code needs to be completely

overhauled and how long would that take? and maybe comment on the scoring rules and how they impact on legislative outcomes. >> the people who own turbo tax do think the tax code is broken, and that is the point, all about how complicated it is, for most of us who do our own taxes, it is not like you have to work your way through these complicated equations. you put the numbers in and it comes back. you can have accountants to do it. it is a tax code that is not designed to maximize economic activity and growth. the more complicated it gets, the more difficult the effort, because in part the tax code now becomes an instrument of social policy.

frankly, one of the philosophical arguments we have not had is if you are going to have government play a role in social policy, whether encouraging housing or encouraging work through things like the earned income tax credit, a republican initiative, what is the best way to do it? is it to do it through a government program and regulations or to tax incentive or disincentives? the more conservative route is to the tax system. it moves you in a direction that does not contribute necessarily to the most efficient economic process. certainly, when you work your way to the meat grinder of the ways and means and finance committees and to the way in which they score things which fits the political objectives and not either revenue or tax objectives, and frankly, when you go through a process where you decide as part of your budget discipline that you are wrong to cut the number of irs agents, and there we have clear and concrete facts that for every additional agent you raise huge amounts of revenue, so you are cutting the legs out of your whole system, it is a pretty insane way of doing things. >> i think your question is very

appropriate. the fact is there is so much talk about this now, primarily because we need to raise revenues, and one party is adamant against raising those revenues, at least doing it in the form of increased tax and rates. that is what we are doing through all of this. if you look at the history of taxation in this country, we went through our most productive economic periods with unbelievably high tax rates, marginal tax rates, but plenty of ways of avoiding them, and it was messy and the economy grew, and the dividends were widely shared by the public. in my view, marginal tax rates, once they are down where they

have been since reagan, really, with the tax reform act of 1986, adjustments like this are not going to have any direct consequence for the economy. we just need revenues now, and we are going to have to have a level of taxation overall that is higher. there are better ways to do it without raising rates further. consumption tax for things we do not want to encourage, yes, and if we're starting from scratch, and we would design our tax system it differently, but we should not get lost in the weeds here of what is really needed. >> i do not know where david hawkins is, but i think we have run out of time. david, where are you? we'll continue with questions until he comes and pulls the plug. >> i have a question that ties in with what you're talking about. raising revenues versus social policy and that the for role for 401-k and other retirement savings, because of the budget scoring process, for 10 years

when the public and looks at the loss of revenue from difference now and does not take into account revenue you will get in the future when income starts to be taxed. >> you are certainly right, and if you are looking at the long- term debt picture and long-term revenues and particularly because as we move through this wave of baby-boomers starting to retire and having to pay taxes on a lot of that deferred income, you look 10, 12, or 15

years down the road, there will be something out there, that is right, it is not enough, even if you take that into account. it is not enough in the next 10 years, where you do have at least some really tricky problems if you do not begin to deal with a number of these issues now. as we think about even social policy, is one thing if in theory you say you are to reduce your tax rates down dramatically, but you have to give up the health care or mortgage interest deduction. that is a dicey business. if you say you keep your rates near the where they are, and you end up with a sense of what you end up with a revolution on your hands. that is what to talk about, the idea of having everybody take their deductions at a 15% level, which is fairer, of course, or what romney was talking about in the last few weeks. you have a cap on how much you can take deductions. the problem with all of that is as tax policy center and other policy centers have shown, that hits the middle class and the upper middle class more than it does the rich. figuring out how you can do this and yet shift the burdens were in effect have to be, if you are going to make it saleable and workable, is no easy task. >> the last couple of questions

raised really a larger issue about the nature of the crisis of the deficit and debt stabilization over time. how big a problem it is? should it be the overwhelmingly number one priority for a long period of time to come? i am one of these people who believe what an old friend of ours, bob carr, premier of new south wales, and now the minister of foreign affairs said, don't worry about america, there is nothing wrong with united states that one of reasonable budget deal cannot solve. it is worth keeping in mind. we are probably on the road to

economic recovery. this deficit is going to go down as a share of gdp. we have many strengths at the same time. realistically, we have two things to do once we resolve the fiscal cliff problem. we need more revenues. we're getting older, and if we have to get it up closer to 22% of gdp, and we have to manage health-care costs. that is the monster, and that means real reform, no clever games of shifting costs, because the private sector suffers from the same problem. those are real problems, and they can be dealt with. and i suspect they will and we will get our deal this next year on this problem, and hopefully move on to more

substantial matters. >> and on that note, that happy note, thank you very much, because you went to colorado about the marijuana initiative. [laughter] [applause] midwife's john boehner appeared before the cameras every day since sneakin billy house is the house leadership reporter for "national journal." house speaker john boehner has appeared before the cameras every day since the election on tuesday. what is he saying about the coming work on fiscal issues? >> he is trying to set a tone of putting the onus on president obama to show some leadership. he has not offered any thing that republicans have not been offering for several months in terms of taxes and some other items. he is trying to show they are willing to talk. president obama today responded saying -- yes, let us talk. >> some news reports are characterizing speaker boehner's comments on revenues

as a softening or a change in what he said before the elections. what is the truth? has he changed positions? >> softer tone. it is the same position. the higher income rates -- or any of the rates -- will not go along with any reductions. the issue is whether or not to extend the rates that were put in place under former president bush. a lower rate -- those expire through the year. republicans say all of them -- even those for the higher income earners -- need to be extended at least for one year as they work on more comprehensive

efforts to take on this fiscal cliff. >> has the speaker clued us and on how he envisions reaching an agreement with the president on avoiding or on getting past the fiscal cliff? >> he would say the house has passed a bill already that would address those things including extending the bush tax cuts but also cuts other than those that are called in the sequester reductions replacing some of those military cuts with cuts elsewhere. the republican house ideas are to make deeper cuts into social safety net that will not fly with democrats in the house or in the senate. >> what congressional democrats and the president they looking for? >> they would say a more balanced approach. in other words -- let us at least increase those tax rates. let them increase on the higher income -- on the 2% of wealthiest of americans.

that would go a long way to helping us not happen to find other cuts and items to get around this big hit of spending cuts and tax increases we're headed for. >> what is the timetable for action for all of this? >> the so-called sequester cuts hit on january 2 if not dealt with. when they would hit agencies could trickle into the year. the bush tax cuts end at the end of the year. right around the corner is another problem -- the impending debt ceiling, our nation's ability to continue borrowing would have reached its cap. that will lead to some more battles about what cuts should be made to let that happen. >> what is more likely -- a final agreement on these outstanding issues or some kind of short-term band-aid to get past the end of the year? >> that is exactly what we have. a band-aid, a bridge, a mini bargain, a mini bar. what ever you want to call it. there is talk about crap in return for kicking it down the

road six months. maybe boehner could get his troops o board with doing half of the cuts taht are called for. some conservatives, including jim jordan, who is now head of the republican senate committee, from ohio, says -- no, no, we want to do the cuts. we are not interested in kick it down the road. if we do that, we come out of the 2011 budget control act having done nothing but increase spending and have no cuts to show. there will be battles over that. in the end, they will do a mini bargain that will get us into next year. >> you mentioned the president's invitation to congressional leaders to come to the white house to talk about this. what do you think the president hopes to achieve in that meeting? >> he will say -- hey, -- he will repeat what he said today that we won the election. we have the mandate on taxes. speaker boehner will say -- we

still have more than a two-dozen seat advantage in these house. they will all come together and say -- this is something that goes beyond partisan politics. it goes to very critical and the clock is ticking issues that need to be addressed or this country could face devastating results including perhaps another downgrade in its credit rating. i believe that is probably what they will discuss. >> billy house writes for "national journal." he is the house leadership reporter. thanks for your time. >> no, thank you. >> we plan around the table just for the same year as two years earlier. we have been through this.

you cannot really want to spend the rest of the administration of the economy as lousy as the one brought this to nell. >> american for this and the house pair protection pledge joins us this week. q talk about the office of a cliff and how they should address this. darna sunday at 10:00 a.m. eastern. >> this should be the year we try to solve entitlement reform. i think we can avert this in a way to ensure that the we're

coming to risk to make the pro and that we are facing. >> i am open to new ideas and committed to solving our problem. and not going to us students and seniors and middle-class families to pay done people are not us to pay a dime more. >> the current congress still has work to do in a lame duck session. raising the debt ceiling and i tell much carrot follow all these cards they thought raising the death -- raising the debt ceiling and bought -- reading

the debt ceiling and by how much. >> next, you will continue our discussion with roll-call and focus on leadership elections unlikely assignments for the 113 congress. this is about one hour. you who are veterans, tom and norm usually do the next bit, but we will mix up this time, because we have people who are eminently qualified to talk about the new power structure in contrast. jason dick, david hawkings, and emily pierce. on my right, jason dick, the house editor at "roll call," and to better to discuss a leadership in congress that will be more demographically

diverse than ever before. as your guide reminds you, after two consecutive elections in which the female population of both houses topped at 17%, it has gone up to 22% in the senate and at least 18% in the house. congress will have its first hindu member, a new congressman from hawaii. and a little known water cooler fact of for the first time in american history an entire state delegation will be occupied by women. a long way to get to 50%, but that is a little bit of progress. also, a few more members of color. the house democrats for the

first time, their democratic caucus and the house, white men will make up a minority of that crowd. who is going to run the lives of these people? as you may know, three of the for leadership elections are the calling card for the first week of a lame duck, when the lame duck starts next week, but as norman and tom said, the real legislating will be put off until after thanksgiving. next week is about freshman orientation and leadership elections. three of the for leadership elections.

we'll go to jason first to give us a little handicap on the republican and democratic house elections. >> thank you, david. it is nice to be here. i hope everybody has caught up on their sleep. the sleep deprivation quotient in washington is up the first day after the election. that is remarkably stable. eric cantor will be the majority leader and kevin will be the majority whip. westar sick interesting if the conference share position.

he was a republican study committee chairman, which is the top conservative position in republican circles in the house. there are two people making a run for conference chairman, tom price, who is also a former committee chairman of the past. he is currently making a bid for conference chairman, and then cathy mcmorris rodgers, and they represent two different modes of the republican party at this point. cathy rodgers is an effective surrogate for romney. she is from the tom foley district in central south washington. it is an agricultural area.

spokane is the population center. i believe spokane reaches out to the east, for those of you remember raymond carver stories. she is a charismatic politician. she is able to articulate the republican agenda in a way that is not threatening to people. and she has been running pretty hard. price has kept a low profile, but seems to have accumulated quite a bit of support within the republican conference of the last few years. >> are you going to predict a winner? >> i am not. >> and what is nancy pelosi going to do for the rest of her life? >> i'm going to call my lifeline. right now all eyes are on nancy pelosi. about a week and a half ago, mr. pelosi announced that the democratic leadership and

elections for house were going to be moved to after thanksgiving. the house republican leadership elections in the senate and the democratic and republican leadership elections are all going to be next week. this is traditionally when things happen. the fact that she set this off a couple of weeks led to speculation that she wanted to see how the election would turn out, she wanted to have some time to we whether she would even retire or resign after winning her seat on tuesday. there was a lot of speculation that pelosi would leave immediately after the 2010 election. she moved up the elections to cut back on the amount of time that people would be able to organize against her. she ultimately made a bid for the majority leader, but lost

ultimately. there was a lot of consternation among democrats. democrats wanted a little more soul-searching time after losing the seats, and they were not afforded that time. so we don't know what is going to happen. nancy pelosi is in california. her home in napa valley was broken into on monday. so she actually has some literal housekeeping to take care of. apparently people broke in. they don't know what is missing. sort of this bizarre thing. in the event she does retire or resign from congress, steny hoyer would be the frontrunner to take over as minority leader. the subtext -- almost a shakespearean subtext -- between steny hoyer and nancy pelosi, they had interned together on capitol hill in the 1960's and they have been rivals for years, the last 10 or 12 years competing for leadership positions in the democratic caucus. hoyer would very much like to be minority leader and he would make a bid. the question now is whether pelosi is trying to line up somebody who would be her

successor of choice. there is a lot of drama, and we just don't know where the dominoes will fall until we know her intentions. >> just to wrap up -- who is in the next generation of would-be party leaders who would like to have pelosi's endorsement or if not the endorsement would like to move up? >> right now, outside of hoyer, the person most chatter about is chris van hollen, representative from maryland, a democrat, paul ryan's foil on the budget committee in the house. again, a young, sort of take charge, a charismatic leader. he raised a lot of money. he ran the democratic congressional campaign committee for two cycles. so he has a lot of pull. complicated a little bit by the fact that he and hoyer are friends and they represent the same state and run in the same

circles. he was the assistant to the speaker in nancy pelosi's last term as speaker. that seems to be the person who bubbles to the top the most. and a question about what debbie wasserman schultz will do. democratic committee chairman. no one does that job too long. she is looking at a way to leadership. i hate to use terms like the smart money, but the smart money seems to be if pelosi wants to know if a successor and get behind somebody, it would be chris van hollen. >> that shakes. drama makes what is going on in the senate look tame by comparison. what is the lay of the land on the senate side? >> i think it is pretty tame in the senate. with senate democrats adding two seats -- harry reid, dick durbin, chuck schumer, patty

murray will be carried on people's shoulders to reelection as leaders. i don't really see any changes there. one thing we were hearing yesterday on the republican side, because they lost two seats, especially in states like montana and north dakota -- i did not think anybody is blaming john cornyn, the chairman, where they lost in missouri -- where candidates made flubs and that turned the race against them. but in red states where republicans should do well like montana and north dakota, they did not win those races. we were hearing yesterday that people were starting to talk about whether or not they want to make a change there. now and ultimately i think you are not going to find anybody who either has the juice of the power base or frankly the bravery to actually challenge cornyn, but it is interesting people are talking about it. >> just to reiterate it, cornyn does not want to do the republican campaign -- >> i am working on lack of sleep, too. he is running for whip. jon kyl is retiring and cornyn wants to move up, number two

under mitch mcconnell. this is his second run at nrsc -- they picked up six seats in 2010 and here he was expected to deliver the majority at the end of the cycle, but things turned against them. but i don't think republicans are expecting the kind of rout they saw on tuesday. talking about republicans soul- searching and whatnot, and this is part of it. we talked to one senator yesterday who said we are going to be talking about a lot of different things and how to move forward, and leadership races are a part of that. >> you can't beat somebody with nobody. is there a name? >> john thune, the current conference secretary told us four months that he may make a run for whip. he may stay in the current spot or make a run for nrsc chairman. i suspect you will decide to stick where he is right now. certainly we were trying to get those guys on the phone yesterday and they were not taking our calls. it could be there is some

decision making going on. but i think at the end of the day it is unlikely cornyn draws a challenge. john thune would be the strongest challenge. >> would thune have the ability to attract the so-called tea party or the most conservative and confrontational crowd? or are they waiting for jim demint or rand paul or mike lee or somebody like that to run? >> if one of those guys of the tea party crowd ran, i don't think they will get very many votes. we talk about them alive, but in the senate gop conference you actually have a lot more mainstream establishment republicans than you do tea

party people. it would be more of a heath shuler taking on nancy pelosi after the 2010 elections, where it was more a protest candidacy than an actual bid that anyone thinks they could win. if jim demint were to try to, i think he would maybe get 10 votes. >> mitch mcconnell, interestingly, who is in the absolute paragon of the republican establishment, seems to have sort of won them over. an uneasy peace with rand paul, and it looks to me like mitch mcconnell wanted to be majority leader ever since he and his beagle dog won the 1984 senate

race -- one of the best ads ever, youtube, mcconnell and beagle. awesome. he may never be majority leader because things do not automatically look all that much better for republicans two years from now than now. and he also will be facing a primary in two years. we should warn people. >> he may or may not. i think what he has been trying to do -- back in 2010, of course, mcconnell, there was a contested primary in kentucky and mcconnell backed trey grayson, and rand paul won, so it caused a little problem and people were upset with him. but he has done a lot of work over the past two years to really hug rand paul so close to him, and he has let rand paul do just about whatever he wants to do on the senate floor. when rand paul says i want to go on the floor and cause a big stink about something, mitch mcconnell says go right ahead. i am not going to try to stop you. and he is really sure of -- mitch mcconnell is such a talented politician. he is so smart. and in my opinion i think he has done everything he could possibly do to prevent someone from having any -- even if somebody wanted to challenge him from the right, i think he has

done about as he could possibly do to keep them at bay. >> of course, the other aspect of leadership transition in congress will be changes on the committees. you are a handy guide. i should probably avert some of this to the question-and-answer period, and hopefully you will not feel limited try to place the band of the three of us and ask complicated questions about the obscure subcommittees and we will do our best. but in general, the macro narrative about the committee chairmanships as the house republicans, as many of you may know, way back in 1994 when they came out of the minority for the first time in 40 years, one of their first so-called reforms was to impose a six-year term limits on all of their committee chairmen. they felt the old democratic system that was in place since the late 1950's through the early 1990's of security being paramount, and these old white guys taking the gavels in their 50's and hanging on to them into their 70's was a bad idea. and they imposed the term limits. and they have stuck.

it is fascinating to me. i would have figured by now they would have given up. as a result there will be another generation of turnover at the tops of several committees on the house side, not necessarily the senate. we should look back to these guys for an overview about what is about to happen. >> what is important to point out is there is going to be a certain amount of turnover. but one of the things that has happened among house republicans in the committee system is sort of like what has happened in california, where a lot of state officeholders are bound by term limits, where they just start running for other offices. that is one of the reasons antonio villaraigosa became mayor of los angeles because he was terminated as assemblyman. it does create problems because some of the people with seniority expect to be deferred to. it does not always happen, but it does inject a little drama, which is great for us, great copy. copy. let me go through